Chapter 2 The Right to Nationality and Judgment TC/0168/13 of the Constitutional Court | 125 such as the American Declaration of the Rights and Duties of Man and the American Convention. Non-recognition of identity can mean that a person has no legal proof of his or her existence, thus hampering the full exercise of his or her civil, political, economic, social, and cultural rights. 296 299. The Commission recognizes that the right to identity is an autonomous right that, like all human rights, is universal, inalienable, interdependent, and indivisible. This right encompasses the development of an authentic individual, through family, social, territorial, ethnic, and cultural ties, as well as the protection of an individualized identity. Accordingly, the Commission emphasizes that birth registration is an effective part of an effective civil registry system that recognizes the existence of the person before the law, establishes family ties, and records the most important events in an individual’s life, from birth to marriage and death. 297 300. Indeed, recognition of civil identity by the State is what allows people to be considered as persons within a society and a political community. This right to the recognition of existence and civil identity is the means of exercising other political, civil, economic, social, and cultural rights, and often the right to access certain public services. 298 301. For its part, the Inter-American Court has established that the right to identity can be conceptualized, in general, as the collection of attributes and characteristics that allow for the individualization of the person in a society, and, as such, it encompasses a number of other rights according to the subject it treats and the circumstances of the case. 299 Thus, personal identity is intimately linked to the person in his or her specific individuality and private life, both of which are based on a historical and biological experience, as well as on the way each individual relates to others through the development of social and family ties. 300 302. With regard to the link between the right to identity and registration in the civil registry system, the Inter-American Court established that it is necessary, as a 296 297 298 299 300 See, inter alia, OAS, “Inter-American Program for Universal Civil Registry and the ‘Right to Identity,’ ” resolution AG/RES. 2286 (XXXVII-O/07) of June 5, 2007; resolution AG/RES. 2362 (XXXVIII-O/08) of June 3, 2008; and resolution AG/RES. 2602 (XL-O/10), on follow-up to the program, of June 8, 2010. In this regard, the Inter-American Juridical Committee considered that the American Convention on Human Rights, although it did not address the right to identity expressly by that name, does cover, as has been seen, the right to a name, the right to nationality, and the right to protection of the family. In this respect, cfr. Inter-American Juridical Committee, Opinion “on the scope of the right to identity,” resolution CJI/doc. 276/07 rev. 1, of August 10, 2007, pars. 11.2, 12, and 18.3.3, ratified by resolution CJI/RES.137 (LXXI-O/07) of August 10, 2010. Inter-American Juridical Committee, Opinion “on the scope of the right to identity,” resolution CJI/doc. 276/07 rev. 1, August 10, 2007, ratified by resolution CJI/RES.137 (LXXI-O/07), of August 10, 2010. Permanent Council of the Organization of American States, Explanation of the Rights Associated with Recognition of Identity for the Purposes of the Working Group to Prepare an Inter-American Program for a Universal Civil Registry and the “Right to Identity.” Working Group to Prepare an Inter-American Program for a Universal Civil Registry and the “Right to Identity.” Committee on Juridical and Political Affairs. OEA/Ser.G, CAJP/GT/DI/INF 20/08, February 4, 2008. I/A Court H.R. (2011). Case of Gelman v. Uruguay. Merits and Reparations. Judgment of February 24, 2011. Series C No.221, par. 122. I/A Court H.R. (2011). Case of Contreras et al. v. El Salvador. Merits, Reparations and Costs. Judgment of August 31, 2001 Series C No. 232, par. 113. Inter-American Commission on Human Rights | IACHR