2 5. In sum, nowadays, the right of the individual to international justice under the American Convention is safeguarded both by the relevant treaty-based norms and by the Court’s resolve, which has perfected its interna corporis notably (particularly over the period November 2000 to January 2004), by not admitting undue restrictions to that right. This contributes, in my opinion, to the actual process of humanization of international law, in addition to constituting a definitive conquest of contemporary civilization within the framework of the American Convention. 6. The second point I wish to emphasize in my separate opinion concerning this judgment, which is the Inter-American Court’s first judgment on political rights in a democratic society3 under Article 23 of the American Convention, is the relevant connection that the Court has made between political rights and the right to equal protection of the law, embodied in Article 24 of the American Convention. The latter is constituted by a basic principle that the Court itself has recognized as belonging to the domain of international jus cogens: the principle of equality and nondiscrimination. 7. In this judgment in YATAMA v. Nicaragua, the Court confirms the significant advance in its case law with regard to the historic Advisory Opinion No. 18 on the Juridical Status and Rights of Undocumented Migrants (2003), by reasoning (in paragraphs 184 to 186 that: "The principle of the equal and effective protection of the law and of nondiscrimination constitutes an outstanding element of the human rights protection system embodied in many international instruments and developed by international legal doctrine and case law. At the current stage of the evolution of international law, the fundamental principle of equality and non-discrimination has entered the realm of jus cogens. The juridical framework of national and international public order rests on it and it permeates the whole juridical system. This principle is fundamental for the safeguard of human rights in both international and national law; it is a principle of peremptory law. Consequently, States are obliged not to introduce discriminatory regulations into their laws, to eliminate regulations of a discriminatory nature, to combat practices of this nature, and to establish norms and other measures that recognize and ensure the effective equality before the law of each individual. A distinction that lacks objective and reasonable justification is discriminatory. Article 24 of the American Convention prohibits any type of discrimination, not only with regard to the rights embodied therein, but with regard to all the laws that the State adopts and to their application. In other words, this article does not merely reiterate the provisions of Article 1(1) of the Convention concerning the obligation of States to respect and ensure, without discrimination, the rights recognized therein, but, in addition, establishes a right that also entails obligations for the State to respect and ensure the principle of equality and non-discrimination in the safeguard of other rights and in all domestic laws that it adopts. 8. Regarding the broad scope of the basic principle of jus cogens, equality and non-discrimination, I have already referred to this in my extended concurring opinion to the Court’s Advisory Opinion No. 18 on the Juridical Status and Rights of Undocumented Migrants, which I will refer to here. In this concurring opinion I stated, for example, that this principle permeates the whole corpus juris of international human rights law (para. 59) of which it is one of the pillars,4 in addition . And, in this Case of YATAMA, as the Court’s judgment recognizes, the exercise of political rights is increasing in importance, because it has a direct impact on the need to preserve the right to cultural identity and the right to participate in public life of the indigenous communities of the Atlantic Coast of Nicaragua (paras. 226-228). 3 . 4 A. Eide and T. Opsahl, Equality and Non-Discrimination, Oslo, Norwegian Institute of Human