Amnesties, Conflict and Peace

Project Commenced: 11/1/2022

Project Completion Date: 12/31/2023

Project PI/s

Professor Louise Mallinder

Other staff or partners

This project is a work package of Peace and Conflict Resolution Evidence Platform (‘PeaceRep’). PeaceRep is a seven-year research consortium led by the University of Edinburgh Law School. Consortium members include:
Conciliation Resources, Conflict and Civicness Research Group at LSE, Coventry University’s Centre for Trust, Peace and Social Relations, Dialectiq, Edinburgh Centre for Constitutional Law, International IDEA, LSE Middle East Centre, Queens University Belfast, University of St Andrews, University of Stirling, and the University of Glasgow. The project also works with a range of partners in the field, including Yemen Policy Centre, Yemen Polling Centre, Peace Track Initiative, and more.

Project Description

Amnesties are widely used in peacebuilding. However, when applied to genocide, war crimes, crimes against humanity, or gross human rights violations, amnesties are increasingly viewed as conflicting with states’ duties to prosecute these crimes. This project updates and expands the innovative Amnesties, Conflict, and Peace Agreement database (https://www.peaceagreements.org/amnesties/) and translates this qualitative database into a quantitative dataset. This data will be used to produce a monograph providing the first detailed, global analysis of the legality, legitimacy, and impact of amnesties for international crimes committed during armed conflict. This interdisciplinary project will use empirical data to identify trends in state practice and to explore how choices regarding the scope, conditionality, and legal effects of amnesties can shape their contribution to peace.

Awarding Bodies

Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office (FCDO), UK

Further Information

https://peacerep.org/