Manual on the Effective Investigation and Documentation of Torture and other Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment (The Istanbul Protocol).” 204. Furthermore, Article 4(c) of the Declaration on the Elimination of Violence against Women, adopted by the General Assembly provides that States should, “Exercise due diligence to prevent, investigate and, in AC HP R accordance with national legislation, punish acts of violence against women, whether those acts are perpetrated by the State or by private persons.‟71 205. The African Commission notes the Inter-American Court‟s decision in Velasquez Rodriguez v. Honduras ,which held that: An illegal act which violates human rights and which is initially not directly imputable to a State (for example, because it is the act of a private person or because the person responsible has not been identified) can lead to international responsibility of the State, not because of the act itself, but because of the lack of due diligence to prevent the violation or to respond to it as required by the Convention (…). What is decisive is… whether the State has allowed the act to take place without taking measures to prevent it or to punish those responsible…72 206. The acts in the present Communication were illegal and unjustifiable. The African Commission will not belabour on analysing the responsibility of the State under this Article since its reasoning will be the same as Article 71 Declaration on the Elimination of Violence against Women, General Assembly resolution 48/104 of 20 December 1993, UN Doc. A/RES/48/104, 23 February 1994. 72 Velasquez Rodriguez v. Honduras (1988) IACtHR, para. 173 59