Moreover, this report seeks to answer empirical questions such as what can be learnt from the experiences of other countries? More importantly, this study interrogates whether transitional justice processes and mechanism, in pre or post-transition states, have any effect on the creation and deepening of democracy in those countries? This question is not trivial, for as Mahmood Mamdani, an eloquent commentator on human rights and transitional justice, pointed out recently in respect of South Africa, it might be the case that the complex set of negotiations known as the Convention for a Democratic South Africa (CODESA) negotiations had a far greater effect on the establishment of democracy in South Africa than the Truth and Reconciliation Commission.7 3. Objectives and Methodology of the Study 3.1 Objectives The main objective is as follows: To provide a comprehensive analysis of the risks and opportunities of a civil society-driven transitional justice process using the examples of previous attempts by other countries. In order to achieve this primary objective, a series of secondary objectives were addressed as follows:    To provide a comprehensive description of, as far as possible, all countries, governed by authoritarian regimes, that have attempted to institute transitional justice prior to any substantive political change; To provide a comprehensive analysis of the difficulties and successes of these attempts; and To provide a set of recommendations of the risks and opportunities for Zimbabwean civil society in pushing for a transitional justice process. The intention here was to provide background material for the NTJWG initiative in its engagement with the NPRC and the mandate for transitional justice provided under Part Six, Sections 251, 252 and 253 of the Zimbabwean Constitution. 3.2 Methodology In the first stage we determined the countries that would be included in the research, as this was crucial to determining the conduct of the study. As a first step, a search was made of potential sources of information on transitional justice, and two large databases were identified: the Transitional Justice Data Base of the Transitional Justice Data Base Project (ITJDBP), which has 2,497 entries organised thematically, and the International Internet Bibliography on Transitional Justice, a bibliography of over 2,000 entries.8 Following a brief examination of the two sources, it was evident that the ITJDBP data was the most useful for the purposes of this study, especially as the project had a detailed, quantitative data base in addition to an extensive bibliography. Following a request for information, the ITJDBP group provided a comprehensive data base of 70 countries that 7 8 ―The Logic of Nuremburg‖, Mahmood Mamdani. The London Review of Books.7th November 2013. This latter is part of a joint project between the Law Faculties of the University of the Western Cape, Cape Town, and Humboldt University, Berlin. 11