Accountability means the state of being responsible or answerable for a system, its behavior, and its potential impacts. Accountability is an acknowledgement of responsibility for actions, decisions, and products. Responsibility can be legal or moral.

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Within activism identifying abuse is particularly difficult because it manifests differently and means acknowledging abuse by a person thought to be politically virtuous. In an accountability process, the person who caused harm is held accountable by both the survivor and the community as a whole.