Introduction The Forum’s transitional justice interventions Since 1998 the Forum, together with its member and partner organizations, has been working towards creating a climate of accountability for human rights abuses in Zimbabwe. In August 2003, Zimbabwean civil society, with the support of international experts, for the first time discussed issues of transitional justice in an structured manner. The Civil Society and Justice in Zimbabwe Symposium (‘Johannesburg Symposium’) was held to explore how best justice and accountability could be realized for the many past and present victims of human rights abuses in Zimbabwe. The Symposium also aimed at promoting a better understanding of transitional justice mechanisms, looking at options for their implementation in Zimbabwe. In 2008 civil society convened in Harare a follow-up meeting to the Johannesburg Symposium. Among other things, this meeting reiterated civil society’s commitment to the Symposium’s resolutions. Civil society emphasized its commitment to a victim-centred, inclusive, comprehensive and consultative process to achieve transitional justice. At the same meeting the Forum was mandated to lead the full implementation of the resolutions adopted. In January 2009 the Forum put the agreed resolutions into practice by rolling out the first ‘Transitional Justice to the People’ outreach programme, the aim of which was to give victims of past violations, and the Zimbabwean people as a whole, a platform and voice to articulate transitional justice issues. The process also sought to establish their understanding of and commitment to transitional justice. The programme was intended to stimulate discussion around transitional justice options within communities and also to gather the people’s views on the transitional justice mechanisms they would prefer and recommend. Their recommendations are captured in two Outreach Reports: Taking Transitional Justice to the People (Volume One, 2009; Volume Two, 2010). While the first phase of the Forum’s outreach programme provided an idea of what local communities in the country desired from a transitional justice process, it was designed to give a representative overview of what the country as a whole wanted to achieve. Accordingly, the Forum decided to conduct a national household survey on transitional justice to capture individual contributions to the process. Between 7 February and 31 March 2011, a qualitative and quantitative study was conducted, which aimed at eliciting in-depth opinions of participants from a broad spectrum of the Zimbabwean population on transitional justice issues. Semistructured questionnaires were used to sample members of society. In total, 3 189 people from 84 constituencies in ten provinces were interviewed. This report is based on the data obtained from this process. Why the Forum wants to know what Zimbabweans want Against the background of progressive transitional steps in Zimbabwe, the Forum conducted a survey to document the experiences, views, and attitudes of ordinary Zimbabweans with a view to soliciting the people’s recommendations on the way forward. The following objectives drove the national survey: • To obtain the people’s recommendations on the preferred transitional justice mechanism(s) for Zimbabwe. 8 Transitional Justice Survey – A Report of the People’s Perceptions and Recommendations