Part I State Obligations and Rights Protected, Ch.II Civil and Political Rights, Art.18: Right to a Name

Abstract

This chapter examines Article 18 of the American Convention on Human Rights (ACHR), which protects the subjective right of each person to a name, and obliges the State to regulate the allocation of names and to ensure the implementation of the subjective right. Article 18 underlines the importance to ensure the exercise of the right by legislative or other provisions echoing the general obligation of the States Parties to adopt legislative or other measures as may be necessary to give effect to the rights, under Article 2 of the ACHR. Although Article 18 is an autonomous provision, the nexus between the right to a name and other rights explicitly or implicitly protected by the ACHR is obvious, in particular, with the right to recognition of legal personality (Article 3), the right to private life (Article 11), family rights (Article 17), the special protection of children (Article 19), the right to nationality (Article 20), and, more generally, the right to identity recognized by the Court's jurisprudence. Article 18 of the ACHR is not the subject of reservation or interpretative declaration by the States Parties under Article 75. Moreover, it is included in the list of rights that cannot be derogated from under Article 27-2.