25 2. Right to equality before the law and to equal protection of the law (Article 24 of the American Convention) 118. Time and time again, the Inter-American Commission and the Inter-American Court have held that the right of equality and non-discrimination is a fundamental principle of the interAmerican human rights system and “entails obligations erga omnes of protection that bind all States and generate effects with regard to third parties, including individuals.” 96 119. From its earliest case law on the subject, the Inter-American Court underscored the following with respect to the principle of equality: [t]he notion of equality springs directly from the oneness of the human family and is linked to the essential dignity of the individual. That principle cannot be reconciled with the notion that a given group has the right to privileged treatment because of its perceived superiority. It is equally irreconcilable with that notion to characterize a group as inferior and treat it with hostility or otherwise subject it to discrimination in the enjoyment of rights which are accorded to others not so classified. It is impermissible to subject human beings to differences in treatment that are inconsistent with their unique and congenerous character. 97 120. On the concept of “discrimination,” while the American Convention and the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights do not contain any definition of this term, the Commission, the Court and the United Nations Human Rights Committee have relied on the definitions contained in the International Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Racial Discrimination and the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women to make the case that discrimination is: […] any distinction, exclusion, restriction or preference which is based on any ground suc as race, colour, sex, language, religion, political or other opinion, national or social origin, property, birth, or other status, and which has the purpose or effect of nullifying or impairing the recognition, enjoyment or exercise by all persons, on an equal footing, of all rights and freedoms. 98 121. As for the nexus between the principle of equality and non-discrimination, the Court has written that “[t]he element of equality is difficult to separate from non-discrimination” and that there is an inseparable connection between the obligation to respect and guarantee human rights and the principle of equality and non-discrimination. States are obliged to respect and guarantee the full and free exercise of rights and freedoms without any discrimination. Non-compliance by the State with the general obligation to respect and guarantee human rights, owing to any discriminatory treatment, gives rise to its international responsibility. 99 96 I/A Court H.R., Juridical Condition and Rights of the Undocumented Migrants. Advisory Opinion OC-18/03 of September 17, 2003. Series A No. 18, par. 173 (5). 97 I/A Court H.R., Proposed Amendments to the Naturalization Provision of the Constitution of Costa Rica. Advisory Opinion OC-4/84, January 19, 1984. Series A No. 4, par. 55. 98 United Nations, Human Rights Committee, General Comment 19, Non-discrimination, 10/11/89, CCPR/C/37, par. 7; I/A Court H.R., Juridical Condition and Rights of the Undocumented Migrants. Advisory Opinion OC-18/03 of September 17, 2003. Series A No. 18, par. 92; Fourth Progress Report of the Rapporteurship on Migrant Workers and Their Families, OEA/Ser.L/V/II.117, Doc. 1 rev. 1,Annual Report of the IACHR 2002, March 7, 2003, par. 87; IACHR, María Elena Morales de Sierra v Guatemala, Report No. 4/01, Case 11.625, January 19, 2001. I/A Court H.R., Juridical Condition and Rights of the Undocumented Migrants. Advisory Opinion OC-18/03 of September 17, 2003. Series A No. 18, par. 85. 99