CERD/C/106/D/61/2017 status, disability or physical difference, or on grounds of any other distinction, whether personal or collective, temporary or permanent, whose aim or effect is to diminish or nullify the recognition, enjoyment or exercise of rights. Furthermore, article 21 of the Constitution safeguards the right to build and maintain one’s cultural identity and to decide whether to belong to one or more cultural communities. 2.5 Lastly, the State party contends that there was no violation of articles 2 (2) and 5 (d) (iv) of the Convention, as the Organic Act on National Equality Councils 8 and the National Agenda for the Equality of Nationalities and Peoples for the periods 2013–2017 and 2017– 2021 meet the requirements flowing from these articles. The State party claims that the judicial authorities that ruled on the petitioner’s application for constitutional protection and his appeal considered carefully the question of what authority was competent to officiate and register a civil marriage. The authorities competent to officiate a marriage are civil registry officials or any other authorized persons who, by virtue of their profession, engage in activities that fall within the scope of the Organic Act on Identity and Civil Data Management, such as public notaries, but not the traditional authorities of the Escaleras indigenous community. The competent authority for the registration of marriages is the Directorate General for Civil Registration, Identification and Certification, and not the Confederación de Pueblos de la Nacionalidad Kichwa del Ecuador. Petitioner’s comments on the State party’s observations on the merits 3.1 In his comments of 15 August 2020, the petitioner claimed that the civil registry must respect the Constitution as the supreme law of the land and takes precedence over all other laws in the legal order. Article 424 of the Constitution establishes that the “laws and actions of the governmental authorities must comply with constitutional provisions; where they do not, they are legally void”. 3.2 The petitioner points out that article 1 of the Constitution establishes that Ecuador is a plurinational State. Article 57 safeguards the collective rights of indigenous peoples and nationalities to “freely strengthen their identity, sense of belonging, ancestral traditions and social organization models ... to develop their own models of coexistence and social organization … and to establish, develop, apply and practise their distinct or customary laws”. Furthermore, article 171 grants indigenous peoples and nationalities the right to exercise “judicial functions based on their ancestral traditions and their own law”; the decisions issued by these function-holders must be respected by government institutions and authorities. 3.3 The petitioner therefore argues that, since the judicial functions of traditional indigenous authorities are recognized and protected by the Constitution, the civil registry should have respected and recognized the officiation of his ancestral marriage by his people’s traditional authorities. 3.4 The petitioner further argues that, under articles 424 and 426 of the Constitution, the civil registry should also have respected international law. These articles establish that “international human rights treaties ratified by the State that recognize rights that are more favourable than those contained in the Constitution take precedence over any other law or action of the governmental authorities” and that “the rights enshrined in the Constitution and international human rights instruments are implemented and enforced immediately. The absence of a law or lack of awareness of the law cannot be invoked to justify a violation of those rights.” 3.5 In that regard, the petitioner recalls that International Labour Organization (ILO) Indigenous and Tribal Peoples Convention, 1989 (No. 169), which Ecuador has ratified, defends the maintenance and strengthening of peoples’ distinct culture, way of life and institutions, which cannot serve as grounds for discrimination in the exercise of civil rights. In particular, article 2 establishes that “governments shall have the responsibility for developing, with the participation of the peoples concerned, coordinated and systematic action to protect the rights of these peoples” through measures “ensuring that members of 8 4 Adopted in 2014 to promote, encourage and protect respect for the principle of equality and nondiscrimination. Pursuant to the Organic Act, five specialized councils were established (gender, intergenerational, peoples and nationalities, disability and human mobility). GE.22-11683