~CH.~\ ACH.PR ,_i) , Afncan Commission on Human and Peoples' Rights Human Rights our Collective Responsibility transformative equality not just formal equality. Under it, states have the responsibility to prevent, regulate, control, investigate, punish and provide effective remedies. Reparations under the Protocol include individual reparations and reparations targeted at systematic failures. 221. Furthermore, the Guidelines on Combatting Sexual Violence and its Consequences in Africa (the Niamey Guidelines) calls on States to take actions to prevent sexual violence against women including in conflict or post-conflict situations; and combating impunity for the perpetrators of sexual violence. The Niamey Guidelines also underscore the right to reparation, calling on States to take the necessary legislative and other measures required to guarantee access to appropriate, efficient, accessible, timeous and long-lasting reparation for injury and loss suffered by victims of sexual violence. States are also required to ensure that their national legal framework guarantees that the definitions of all forms of sexual violence set out in criminal legislation are consistent with regional and international standards-? 222. Under Principle 4 of the Niamey Guidelines, the Commission clarifies that: States must take the necessary measures to ensure that the rights of the victims of sexual violence are guaranteed, irrespective of their race, colour, national origin, citizenship, eihniciiu, profession, political opinions, and any other opinions, and health including HIV status, disabilitu, age, religion, culture, marital status, socio-economic status, status as a refugee, migrant or any other status, sexual orientation and identitv, gender expression or any other factor that could lead to discrimination against them.78 223. However, it is worth noting that in Equalitrj Now and Ethiopian Women Lawyers Association (EWLA) v Ethiopia.i? the Commission held that distinctively exacting violence on someone simply because she is a woman, as opposed to being a man, or exacting more violence on women as compared to men in the same circumstances amounts to discrimination. /I 224. Similarly, in emphasizing the importance of providing access to justice to women and girls at risk of sexual and gender-based violence, the Commission