44 XI VIOLATION OF ARTICLE 19 (Rights of the Child) 178. In the application, the Commission alleged that Guatemala had violated Article 19 of the American Convention by omitting to take adequate prevention and protection measures in favor of Julio Roberto Caal Sandoval, 15 years of age, Jovito Josué Juárez Cifuentes, 17 years of age and Anstraum Aman Villagrán Morales, also 17 years of age. 179. The Commission stated that the crimes committed against these minors “are an example of the serious human rights violations that Guatemalan street children suffered at the time the complaint in the case was made”. 180. To this should be added, according to the Commission, the “serious risk for their development and even for their life […] itself” to which “street children” were exposed, in view of their abandonment and social exclusion, a situation that “was exacerbated in some cases by the extermination and torture to which they were subjected by death squadrons or by the Police Force itself”. 181. In particular, the Commission believes that the State omitted to take measures destined to “safeguard the development and the life of the victims”, to investigate and end the abuse, to punish those responsible, and “to train and impose adequate disciplinary measures and penalties on its agents”. All this, despite being aware that “street children” were the object of acts of violence, particularly by members of the police force, based on reports presented to the State by several international organizations and complaints submitted by non-governmental organizations. 182. In its answer to the application, the State remained silent on this point (supra, paras. 67 and 68). 183. In its final arguments, the Commission indicated that Guatemala signed the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child (hereinafter “Convention on the Rights of the Child”) on January 26, 1990, and deposited the respective instrument of ratification on June 9, 1990 – this Convention entered into force on September 2, 199032. In 1995, during the hearings before the Committee on the Rights of the Child, a supervisory body created by this Convention, Guatemala presented a report in which it stated that “it could only provide information on the situation [of “street children”] as of 1994” and added that “although the number of complaints about police brutality suffered by street children had declined, the problem had not been resolved and the police force had not been completely restructured”. Moreover, it stated that, in Guatemala, there was “a violent culture and that the police force did 32. On this point, the Commission explained that, prior to the time of the facts, Guatemala had accepted to commit itself to respect the terms of the Convention on the Rights of the Child and, therefore, in accordance with Article 18.b) of the Vienna Convention on the Law of Treaties, which provides that a State shall be obliged not to carry out acts that could counter the aim and purpose of the treaty that it has signed, Guatemala was obliged to respect the terms of the Convention on the Rights of the Child in June 1990.