national consultations. And the Afghans, first and foremost, must be praised for having had the courage to speak out, and for not giving up hope for a better future, one which puts an end to human rights violations and impunity. In reading the report, I was particularly struck by the poignancy of how Afghans were thankful for being asked their opinion–for the first time–on these issues. That, in itself, is an important step.” The United Nations has repeatedly emphasized the importance of national consultations. In March 2005, the Secretary-General recommended that in Burundi, in parallel to the negotiations, there should be “a broad-based, genuine and transparent process of consultation [...] with a range of national actors and civil society at large, to ensure that, within the general legal framework for the establishment of judicial and non-judicial accountability mechanisms acceptable to the United Nations and the Government, the views and wishes of the people of Burundi are taken into account.”4 In January 2007, the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights, while reporting to the Human Rights Council on the situation in Nepal, also emphasized the importance of consultations.5 As will be seen later, international human rights law requires national consultations to be undertaken. Such consultations are also a matter of common sense. The people who have been affected by oppression or conflict need to be listened to, so that the transitional justice programmes best reflect their actual experiences, as well as their needs and entitlements. This is all the more important given that no two country situations are the same and each programme must be precisely crafted to take account of the particular needs of the national situation. A careful process of consultations will also ensure that there is a strong sense of local ownership of the transitional justice approaches and should serve to promote stakeholder participation throughout the transitional justice programme. As will be further discussed below, consultation can particularly benefit the design of specific aspects of transitional justice programmes, such as determining the best formal role for victims to play, highlighting the experience of otherwise neglected victim groups, identifying culturally appropriate truth-telling mechanisms, determining the role in proceedings of cultural practices, defining elements for a criminal prosecutorial strategy, adjusting inappropriate procedures, deciding on the time period to be covered by various transitional justice mechanisms and how best to craft recommendations on such matters as reparations. In addition, national consultations can revitalize stalled or excessively slow-moving peace processes or make it difficult for peace negotiators and other decision makers to back out of their commitments to transitional justice. They can also trigger important debates in the community– 4 “Report of the assessment mission on the establishment of an international judicial commission of inquiry for Burundi” (S/2005/158, para. 75). 5 A/HRC/4/97, para. 42. 2