Amnesties and intractable conflicts: Managed impunity in The Philippines' Bangsamoro peace process

ABSTRACT

At the heart of intractable conflict lies a challenging paradox: impunity is both a cause of intractability and, operationalized through the granting of amnesties, one of the key tools employed by peacemakers in their attempts to end long-running periods of violent conflict. That is, impunity is simultaneously conceived of a driver and a solution to the problem of intractability. Focusing on one of the world's most intractable conflicts, the Bangsamoro conflict in The Philippines, this article examines the nature of the impunity/intractability paradox, assesses current attempts to overcome it in the Bangsamoro peace process, and argues that a process of ‘managed impunity' introduced by The Philippines' Transitional Justice and Reconciliation Commission provides one possible way of ending impunity for human rights crimes without jeopardizing the prospects for peace.

Notes on contributor

Renée Jeffery is a professor of international relations in the School of Government and International Relations at Griffith University in Brisbane, Australia. Her recent works include Amnesties, Accountability and Human Rights (University of Pennsylvania Press, 2014), Reason and Emotion in International Ethics (Cambridge University Press, 2014), and Transitional Justice in the Asia-Pacific with Hunjoon Kim (Cambridge University Press, 2014).