to seek the consultees’ views. For instance, an important part of the consultations may be to
elucidate victims’ understanding of such terms as “forgiveness” and “reconciliation.”
When appropriate, sensitization can be generalized for an entire population with mass dissemination in newspapers and the broadcast media. More local means can include drama as well as
role play, group exercises and carefully structured “games.” In Timor-Leste, song was used as
a sensitization tool for the design of the truth and reconciliation process. However, specialists
need to monitor the sensitization tools used so that they serve their precise purposes and avoid
such consequences as re-traumatization.
Sensitization efforts can have unintended but beneficial consequences, such as making a victim
community aware that its members have rights and entitlements. For instance, during transitional justice sensitization efforts in Peru, many rural people in the mountains learned for the
first time that raping a woman was a crime.
Sensitization typically both precedes a consultative process and continues during it. During
consultations it can often be in reaction to unanticipated or ad hoc demands for information
or access to materials. It will usually be prudent to ensure that consultation teams are equipped
with the sorts of materials that may be requested, including the wording (translated into local
languages) of provisions of laws, peace agreements and other relevant texts. These texts need
to be distributed in a way that gives people ample time to study them or, in the case of representative participation, to consult their constituencies, before they come up for discussion.
13
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