VII: Collective harm 50. State Parties have an obligation to provide redress for collective harm. While violations of torture and other ill-treatment are essentially perpetrated against individual persons, they may nevertheless also be directed against and impact upon groups of persons who are targeted collectively. 51. Collective harm may be identified in respect of torture and other illtreatment perpetrated on structurally disadvantaged, persecuted, marginalised or otherwise discriminated groups; groups of people that have suffered individually, but because of their common experience, may have developed a common identity; a particular community that self-defines or self-identifies as a collective; a collective occupying a shared geographic area; or persons who may have been subjected to torture and other ill-treatment in a manner that constitutes a violation of their other collective rights, including peoples’ rights as enshrined under the African Charter. 52. State Parties are required to conduct full assessments of the nature of harm and the extent of its effects as well as the specific needs of the collective and design respective redress measures accordingly. In providing reparation for collective harm, State Parties shall determine the appropriate form(s) and content of reparation by following a process that is sensitive to the collective harm suffered. Victims who are part of a collective may have varying opinions and needs on the nature or form of the reparation they seek. State Parties shall ensure that there is full and informed participation of the collective in the reparation process, and special measures may need to be taken to ensure that the voices of the most at risk members of the collective can be heard and taken into account. 53. State Parties shall also take into account that inequalities within the collective may have an impact on victim participation. Even where victims have been provided with space to participate, there is no guarantee that all individual members of a collective have equal levels of influence. 54. Collective reparation, particularly when it seeks to redress the most 16