socially and economically marginalised victims, may overlap with
the State obligation to address the social and economic needs
of citizens in general. There should be clear distinction between
measures of reparation which target harm suffered by particular
victims and wider developmental programmes.
55. Collective reparation must clearly acknowledge that victims have
been subjected to torture and other ill-treatment, and equally
acknowledge the State’s responsibility for such treatment. It must
establish a link between the service, benefit or measure intended to
be provided and the harm it is meant to repair.
56. Reparation for collective harm must not substitute the individual’s
right to reparation.
VIII: Sexual and gender based violence
57. Acts of sexual and gender based violence, or the failure by States
to prevent and respond to such acts, may amount to torture and
other ill-treatment in violation of Article 5 of the African Charter. This
General Comment specifically refers to those acts of sexual and
gender based violence that amount to a form of torture and other
ill-treatment in view of the specific, traumatic and gendered impact
of sexual violence on victims, including the individual, the family
and the collective.
58. These include physical and psychological acts committed against
victims without their consent or under coercive circumstances,
such as rape (including so-called ‘corrective rape’), domestic
violence, verbal attacks and humiliation, forced marriage, isolation,
dowry-related violence, trafficking for sexual exploitation, enforced
prostitution, indecent assault, denial of reproductive rights including
forced or coerced pregnancy, abortion and sterilisation, forced nudity,
mutilation of sexual organs, virginity tests, sexual slavery, sexual
exploitation, sexual intimidation, abuse, assault or harassment,
forced anal testing, or any form of sexual or gender based violence
of comparable gravity. These acts may occur in public or private
and include force or coercion caused by fear of violence, duress,
detention, psychological oppression or abuse of power. Acts of
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