FOREWORD With the publication of National Consultations on Transitional Justice, the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR), the United Nations system’s lead entity on transitional justice, launches another transitional justice tool for post-conflict States. These publications are meant to help develop sustainable institutional capacity within United Nations missions, as well as to assist transitional administrations and civil society to better craft their responses to transitional justice needs. For transitional justice efforts to be effective, they must be human rights-based, consistently focusing on the rights and needs of victims and their families. The United Nations has frequently emphasized that a comprehensive process of national consultations is a crucial element in that respect. People who have been affected by past oppression or conflict need to be able to freely express their views so that the transitional justice programmes can take into account their experiences and identify their needs and entitlements. A careful process of consultations will also ensure that there is a strong sense of local ownership and promote stakeholder participation in the transitional justice programme. Moreover, consultations can benefit the design of specific aspects of transitional justice programmes, reignite stalled or slow-moving peace processes and trigger important debates in the community. National Consultations identifies the main applicable human rights instruments, and discusses the focus and the form of national consultations. To provide guidance to practitioners, this publication further considers various issues important for the conduct of such consultations, including preparations, when and where to consult and for how long, who should conduct the consultations and who should be consulted, protection-related and ethical considerations, reporting and follow-up. National Consultations builds on our previous series of tools, which included Prosecution Initiatives, Truth Commissions, Vetting, Maximizing the Legacy of Hybrid Courts, Reparations Programmes, Amnesties, Mapping the Justice Sector and Monitoring Legal Systems. Each of these tools can stand on its own, but also fits into a coherent operational perspective. The principles used in these tools are firmly grounded in international human rights law and reflect previous experience and lessons learned from United Nations field operations. V