How States Use Amnesties in Peace Agreements
Author: Louise Mallinder
Amnesties are a common feature of peace agreements that seek to end intra-state armed conflicts. This report summarizes the findings from a new dataset on Peace Agreement Amnesties, created using the PA-X Peace Agreement Database to identify peace agreements with amnesty provisions.
The Peace Agreement Amnesty Dataset presents up-to-date analysis of how amnesties have been handled in peace agreements over time and across regions than previous studies. It provides detailed coding of when amnesties arise in peace negotiations and the extent to which peace agreement amnesty provisions contain limitations to the scope of permissible amnesty and conditionalities with which amnestied persons must comply. It also examines whether the presence of UN mediators corresponds to any trends in the terms of peace agreement amnesty provisions.
The report briefly introduces the Peace Agreement Amnesties Dataset, followed by a discussion of the types of language used in peace agreement amnesty provisions. In the subsequent sections, the dataset is used to present trends in state practice including amnesty provisions in peace agreements. The concluding section reflects on the significance of these findings for conflict-affected states and peace mediators.