III. The focus of national consultations • A well-designed national consultations exercise must take account of the forms of transitional justice that are envisaged for a country: the design of criminal justice-related consultations may look very different from, and be more limited than, those preceding a non-judicial exercise. • While care must be taken to consider transitional justice mechanisms that have been identified beforehand, e.g., in a peace agreement, the consultation process should be open to transitional justice possibilities that were not originally envisaged. IV. The form of the consultations • The consultations that preceded or coincided with early transitional justice initiatives were almost all qualitative, i.e., taking place in the form of workshops, seminars, community meetings and other forms of organized debate while using classical qualitative research techniques such as focus groups, in-depth interviews and participant observation. Since then, various forms of quantitative methodologies have also been used, most commonly surveys. The quantitative and qualitative approaches are not mutually exclusive and many data-gathering exercises integrate both approaches. V. Preparing the way for consultations: the importance of sensitization • It is crucial that the people to be consulted have the necessary information and understanding of the transitional justice options open to them, of the specific context of the consultations, and of the specific purpose of the consultations, so that they can express informed viewpoints and do not have false or unrealistic expectations of the outcomes. • While sensitization work should refer to the experience of other countries in order to inform consultees about the relative strengths and weaknesses of different transitional justice mechanisms, it also needs to emphasize that national programmes of transitional justice have to be tailored to the specific circumstances of the situation. • Sensitization efforts should make use of all relevant languages, including indigenous languages and local dialects, and should be prepared to explain the technical terminology of transitional justice and of law to the consultees. However, it is important to distinguish between technical terms and terms on which the consultation experts wish to seek the consultees’ views. • Sensitization can be achieved through mass dissemination in newspapers and the broadcast media or by way of local means such as drama and role play. It should be monitored by specialists to avoid such consequences as re-traumatization. 30