Peace Agreement Draft Language Guide
Common Terms
This glossary provides definitions for key terms commonly used in peace agreements and discussions of conflict. The definitions are intended to help readers understand the context and meaning of these terms as they are typically used in peace processes and agreements. While the official definitions used in a peace agreement may be more detailed or specific, these explanations offer a general understanding for readers. Given the multitude of terms employed in peace processes and peace agreements, which often depend on the specific features of the conflict, this list is non exhaustive.
The definitions provided here have been drawn from various sources, including the United Nations, the International Committee of the Red Cross, think tanks, and other online materials.
Accountability▸
The obligation of individuals, institutions, and states to answer for their actions and be held responsible for violations of rights or failures to meet legal and ethical standards.
Access to Justice▸
The ability of all people to seek and obtain a remedy through formal or informal institutions of justice, regardless of their social or economic status.
Amnesty▸
The act of an authority such as a government by which pardon is granted to a large group of individuals, often used to encourage participation in peace processes. This typically does not apply to serious international crimes.
Armed Conflict▸
A situation involving the use of armed force between states or protracted armed violence between governmental authorities and organized armed groups or between such groups within a state.
Atrocity Crimes▸
Serious international crimes including genocide, crimes against humanity, and war crimes.
Cessation of Hostilities▸
The termination of all offensive military operations and activities by the parties to a conflict.
Ceasefire▸
A negotiated agreement to suspend armed hostilities between conflicting parties, often a first step toward broader peace negotiations.
Civil Society▸
Non governmental organizations, community groups, religious institutions, professional associations, and other organized groups operating independently from government to represent community interests and needs.
Combatant▸
A person who is an active member of armed forces or armed groups and directly participates in hostilities.
Compensation▸
Financial awards for economically accessible damage resulting from human rights violations, including physical or mental harm, lost opportunities, material damages, and moral injury.
Crimes Against Humanity▸
Widespread or systematic attacks directed against any civilian population, with knowledge of the attack, such as murder, extermination, enslavement, deportation, imprisonment, torture, sexual violence, persecution, enforced disappearance, or other inhumane acts.
Crime of Aggression▸
Planning, preparation, initiation, or execution of an act of aggression by a state, in violation of the United Nations Charter, which by its character, gravity, and scale constitutes a manifest violation of international law.
Cybersecurity▸
Measures to protect critical information systems and digital infrastructure during peace processes and post conflict recovery.
Demilitarized Zone▸
An area where no military forces, weapons, or installations are permitted, often established to reduce the risk of conflict between opposing forces.
Disarmament, Demobilization, and Reintegration▸
A process of removing weapons from combatants, disbanding armed units, and helping former fighters transition to civilian life.
Early Warning Systems▸
Mechanisms to detect and report signs of potential renewed conflict before violence escalates.
Economic Reconstruction▸
The process of rebuilding and revitalizing economic infrastructure, institutions, and activities in post conflict areas to support sustainable peace.
Gender▸
The socially constructed characteristics of women and men, such as norms, roles and relationships of and between groups of women and men.
Genocide▸
Acts committed with intent to destroy, in whole or in part, a national, ethnical, racial, or religious group, including killing members of the group, causing serious bodily or mental harm, deliberately inflicting conditions of life calculated to bring about physical destruction, imposing measures to prevent births, or forcibly transferring children of the group to another group.
Guarantees of Non repetition▸
Measures aimed at ensuring that human rights violations do not recur, such as institutional reforms, strengthening the independence of the judiciary, protecting human rights defenders, and promoting human rights education.
Hybrid Court▸
A court that combines elements of both domestic and international law and personnel, often used in post conflict settings to address serious crimes while building local capacity and legitimacy.
Institutional Reform▸
The process of transforming public institutions to promote respect for the rule of law, integrity, and good governance, often a key component of post conflict reconstruction.
Internally Displaced Person▸
An individual forced to flee their home but who remains within their state borders, often due to conflict, generalized violence, or natural disasters.
Judicial Independence▸
The concept that the judiciary should be free from influence or control by other branches of government or external forces, essential for maintaining the rule of law.
Legal Framework▸
The system of rules, regulations, and legal principles that govern a society, including constitutions, statutes, regulations, and court decisions.
Lustration▸
The process of removing public officials from certain positions based on their association with human rights abuses or corruption under the previous regime.
Memorialization▸
Processes that provide the necessary space for individuals and communities affected by the conflict to articulate their diverse narratives in culturally meaningful ways. Memorialization activities typically include building monuments and museums, preserving sites of significance, and promoting historical reflection through art, culture, and education.
Monitoring and Verification▸
The systematic observation, assessment and reporting of compliance with peace agreement commitments through established mechanisms and procedures.
National Dialogue▸
Inclusive processes of public consultation and discussion aimed at building consensus on issues critical to national peace and reconciliation.
Peace Agreement▸
A formal written document signed by negotiating parties that outlines the terms for ending armed conflict and establishing peace.
Peace Implementation Commission▸
An institution established to oversee and coordinate the implementation of peace agreement provisions, often including representatives from conflict parties and other stakeholders.
Peace Process▸
A series of negotiated phases and activities aimed at resolving conflict and establishing sustainable peace, including ceasefire agreements, peace negotiations, and implementation of peace accords.
Power Sharing▸
Political arrangements that distribute governing authority among different groups or factions, sometimes as a temporary arrangement to prevent a return to conflict.
Reconciliation▸
The process of rebuilding relationships damaged by conflict and addressing the root causes of violence, often involving truth telling, justice, and efforts to heal social divisions.
Refugee▸
A person who has fled their state due to well founded fear of persecution for reasons of race, religion, nationality, membership of a particular social group or political opinion, and is unable or unwilling to return.
Rehabilitation▸
Measures that provide social, medical, psychological, and legal services to victims to aid in their recovery and reintegration into society.
Reparations▸
Measures taken to redress harms suffered by victims of human rights violations or breaches of international humanitarian law, which may include restitution, compensation, rehabilitation, satisfaction, and guarantees of non repetition.
Restitution▸
Measures aimed at restoring a victim to the position they were in before the violations occurred, which may include restoring liberty, legal rights, social status, family life, citizenship, return to ones place of residence, and restoration of employment.
Rule of Law▸
The principle that all people and institutions are subject to and accountable to law that is fairly applied and enforced, without arbitrary exercise of power.
Security Sector Reform▸
The process of transforming security institutions to operate effectively and professionally under democratic civilian control.
Sexual and Gender Based Violence▸
Violence committed against a person because of his or her sex or gender. This includes forcing another person to do something against his or her will through violence, coercion, threats, deception, cultural expectations, or economic means.
Transitional Justice▸
The range of processes and mechanisms associated with a society’s attempts to come to terms with a legacy of large scale past abuses, aiming to ensure accountability, serve justice, and achieve reconciliation.
Truth Commission▸
An official, non judicial body tasked with investigating and reporting on patterns of human rights abuses over a specified period, often with the aim of establishing a shared historical narrative and promoting reconciliation. A truth commission generally does not issue prison sentences but some have awarded amnesties in exchange for truth.
Vetting▸
The systematic review of an individuals background, professional conduct, and integrity to determine their fitness for public employment or positions of authority in post conflict states.
War Crimes▸
Serious violations of the laws and customs applicable in armed conflict that give rise to individual criminal responsibility under international law, such as willful killing, torture, taking of hostages, intentionally directing attacks against civilians, or using prohibited weapons.