47 consider the specific protection that is involved, for example, that they not be arbitrarily denied a family medium148 and that they not be retained and illicitly transferred to another State. 149 In the present case, illegal transfer of Maria Macarena Gelman's her mother to another State in her state of pregnancy with the mentioned purpose (supra para. 97), prevented the birth of the girl in the mothers country of origin where she normally would have been born and acquired Uruguayan nationality because of an arbitrary situation, in violation of the right recognized in Article 20(3) of the Convention. 129. In this case, the facts affected the right to personal liberty given that, in addition to the fact that the girl was born in captivity, her physical retention by State agents, without the consent of her parents, implied an infringement to her liberty, in the broadest terms of Article 7(1) of the Convention. While children are subject to human rights, this right implies the possibility of all human beings to selfdetermination and to freely choose the circumstances and options regarding their existence. In the case of children, they exercise this right in a progressive manner in the sense that the minor of age develops a greater level of personal autonomy with time,150 to which in their infancy they carry this out by way of their next of kin. Thus, the separation of a child from his or her next of kin implies, necessarily, a threat to the exercise of the child's liberty. 130. The proven facts also affected the right to life, enshrined in Article 4(1) of the Convention, to the detriment of Maria Macarena Gelman, in the extent that, due to said separation, her survival and development was placed at risk, that which the State was obligated to ensure, pursuant to the provisions of Article 19 of the Convention and Article 6 of the Convention on the Rights of the Child, particularly through the protection of the family and the non-interference of an unlawful or arbitrary nature in the family life of the children, given that family plays an essential role in their development. 151 131. The situation of a child whose family identity has been illegally altered and caused by the enforced disappearance of a parent, as is the case concerning María Macarena Gelman, ceases only when the truth about said identity is revealed by any medium and the victim is guaranteed the factual and juridical means to recover a true identity and, where appropriate, a family relationship, with the relevant legal effects to follow. As such, the State did not guarantee her right to juridical                                                                                                                                                                       Perú. Merits, Reparations and Costs. Judgment of May 30, 1999. Series C No. 52, para. 100, and Case of of the Yean and Bosico girls, supra note 143, para. 139. 148 Convention on the Rights of the Child, Article 16. 149 Convention on the Rights of the Child, Article 11, and Inter-American Convention on International Return of Childrend, Article 4º. 150 Cf. See Committee on the Rights of the Child. General Comment 7: Implementing child rights in early childhood, 40 session, UN DocCRC/C/GC/7/Rev.1, September 20, 2006. para. 17. 151 Cf. Advisory Opinion OC-17, supra note 131, paras. 66 and 71. In the same sense, Article 16 of the Additional Protocol to the Convention on the American Human Rights in the Area of Economic, Social and Cultural Rights "Protocol of San Salvador" provides that "[e]very minor child has the right to grow under protection and responsibility of their parents, save in exceptional, judicially-recognized circumstances, a child of young age ought not to be separated from his mother.”