6 21. This report was transmitted by the Commission to the Government on October 20, 1994. The Commission requested that the Government, within a period of sixty days, inform it of the measures adopted to resolve the denounced situation. The Government did not respond to this request or send its observations on Report 23/94, nor did it request reconsideration of the Report. III 22. The Court has jurisdiction to hear the instant case. Guatemala has been a State Party to the Convention since May 25, 1978, and accepted the contentious jurisdiction of the Court on March 9, 1987. IV 23. The Government presented the following preliminary objections: 1) Objection of the prescription of the right of the Commission to submit this case for a decision of the Court, as provided by Article 61(1) of the American Convention on Human Rights, because this right was not exercised within the period of three months set forth in Article 51(1) of the Convention. 2) Objection of the absolute legal invalidity of the application in the present case submitted to the Court by the Commission against the Republic of Guatemala on January 19, 1995, for obvious and material violations, 2(1) Of Article 51(1) of the American Convention on Human Rights, for filing the application when the period fixed by the Convention had expired, which is to say, that the application was filed out of time, 2(2) Of Article 26 of the Rules of Procedure of the Court, for not fulfilling the requirements listed therein for a case to be referred to the Court under Article 61(1) of the Convention. V 24. The Court will now begin examining the first of these preliminary objections. The Government maintains that, in accordance with Article 51 of the American Convention, the Commission had a period of three months from the date of the transmittal of the report referred to in Article 51(1) of the Convention to exercise its right to submit the present case for a decision of the Court. The Government adds that the period began to run on October 20, 1994, the date on which the Commission remitted the report to the Minister of Foreign Relations of Guatemala, and that the period of three months is the equivalent of ninety calendar days. Consequently, it concludes that the period within which the Commission could submit the application to the Court, expired on January 17, 1995, at midnight. The Government alleges that, as the Commission did not submit the case to the Court within this period, this right was extinguished. 25. The Commission submits, in relation to this preliminary objection, that the application was submitted within the three months, calculated from the date of transmission of Report 23/94 to Guatemala, which was October 20, 1994. The Commission maintains that the term