Amnesties and Inclusive Political Settlements


A light sandwich lunch will be served from 12:45pm

Amnesties are widely used during and after armed conflicts. Despite their controversial nature, international policymakers such as the UN continue to recognise some forms of amnesty in these settings are necessary to facilitate conflict resolution. However, the specific forms and functions of amnesties during conflict and peace, and how they are tied to the negotiation and implementation of the broader peace process have rarely been subject to systematic academic analysis. In this presentation, Mallinder will present work that she is currently undertaking to this gap in the literature. She will draw both on theoretical literature relating to inclusive political settlements and the findings from empirical data analysis relating to 286 amnesties enacted between 1990 and 2016 to describe when, where and how amnesties are used in peace processes, and to explore how through carefully designed conditionality and legal effects amnesties can shape inclusion and exclusion in political settlements.