85 understood that these general conditions of equality refer to access to public office by popular election and by appointment or designation. 3) Obligation to guarantee the enjoyment of political rights 201. The Court understands that, in accordance with Articles 23, 24, 1(1) and 2 of the Convention, the State has the obligation to guarantee the enjoyment of political rights, which implies that the regulation of the exercise of such rights and its application shall be in keeping with the principle of equality and non-discrimination, and it should adopt the necessary measures to ensure their full exercise. This obligation to guarantee is not fulfilled merely by issuing laws and regulations that formally recognize these rights, but requires the State to adopt the necessary measures to guarantee their full exercise considering the weakness or helplessness of the members of certain social groups or sectors.165 202. When examining the enjoyment of these rights by the alleged victims in this case, it must be recalled that they are members of indigenous and ethnic communities of the Atlantic Coast of Nicaragua, who differ from most of the population, inter alia, owing to their languages, customs and forms of organization, and they face serious difficulties that place them in a situation of vulnerability and marginalization. This has been recognized in the Statute of Autonomy of the Regions of the Atlantic Coast of Nicaragua (supra para. 124(3)) and in the 2001 report on “Desarrollo Humano en la Costa Caribe de Nicaragua” [Human development on the Caribbean Coast of Nicaragua].166 Furthermore, the expert witness, María Dolores Álvarez Arzate, and the witnesses, Jorge Frederick and John Alex Delio Bans, made specific reference to the difficulties faced by the members of these communities during the 2000 municipal elections (supra para. 111). 203. When considering Electoral Act No. 331 of 2000, the Court will interpret the contents of Articles 23 and 24 of the Convention according to the interpretation criteria established in Article 29(a) and (b) thereof. 204. According to Article 29(a) of the Convention, the full scope of political rights cannot be restricted in such a way that their regulation or the decisions adopted in application of this regulation prevent people from participating effectively in the governance of the State or cause this participation to become illusory, depriving such rights of their essential content. 165 Cf. Juridical Condition and Rights of the Undocumented Migrants, supra note 150, para. 89; and Juridical Condition and Human Rights of the Child, supra note 156, para. 46. 166 Desarrollo humano en la Costa Caribe de Nicaragua [Human Development in the Caribbean Coast of Nicaragua]. Report prepared by the Programa Nacional de Asesoría para la Formulación de Políticas with the support of the Consejo Nacional de Planificación Económica Social (CONPES). This report indicates that, according to the Instituto Nacional de Estadísticas y Censos de Nicaragua (INEC) “among the 25 poorest municipalities in Nicaragua, 12 correspond to municipalities in the Autonomous Regions”; “One of the main inequalities on the Caribbean Coast, which should be underscored, is the limited infrastructure in this part of the country[, which] places the population at a disadvantage as regards their capacity of access to services and entails greater difficulties for transportation and communication”; and “According to data from 1999, the Caribbean Coast, occupying 46% of national territory has only 8.26% of the access roads.” Also, the expert witness, Rodolfo Stavenhagen Gruenbaum, whose expert evidence was incorporated into the body of evidence in this case (supra para. 123), indicated that “the communities of the Atlantic Coast of Nicaragua [..] have traditionally been marginalized from the central power and linked to interests of an international or economic type, but they are very aware of their cultural identity, their self-awareness, of being social groups with historical continuity, with links to the land, and their own forms of organization and economic activities that have distinguished them from the rest of the population of Nicaragua.”