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INTERNATIONAL LEGAL PROTECTION OF HUMAN RIGHTS IN ARMED CONFLICT
obligations. Principle 24 of the Updated Set of principles for the protection
and promotion of human rights through action to combat impunity
states that “[e]ven when intended to establish conditions conducive to
a peace agreement or to foster national reconciliation, amnesty and
other measures of clemency shall be kept within the following bounds:
(a) [t]he perpetrators of serious crimes under international law may not
benefit from such measures until such time as the State has met the obligations
to which principle 19 refers or the perpetrators have been prosecuted
before a court with jurisdiction […] outside the State in question.”
In his report on the establishment of a Special Court for Sierra Leone,
the Secretary-General stated that “[w]hile recognizing that amnesty is
an accepted legal concept and a gesture of peace and reconciliation at
the end of a civil war or an internal armed conflict, the United Nations
has consistently maintained the position that amnesty cannot be granted
in respect of international crimes, such as genocide, crimes against
humanity or other serious violations of international humanitarian law.”127
More recently, the 2006 revised and updated version of the Guidelines
for United Nations Representatives on certain aspects of negotiations
for conflict resolution state that the United Nations cannot condone
amnesties regarding war crimes, crimes against humanity, genocide or
gross violations of human rights, or foster those that violate relevant treaty
obligations of the parties in this field.
5. Accountability of United Nations personnel
Accountability for violations international human rights or humanitarian law
committed by individual United Nations personnel could be addressed in
the same way as those committed by any other individual, with prosecution,
where appropriate, in a State’s domestic courts. Such personnel usually
benefit from immunities in the territory where they are deployed. However,
following international human rights law and international humanitarian
law principles of accountability and the Charter of the United Nations, the
S/2000/915, para. 22.
127
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