Communication 431/12 – Thomas Kwoyelo v. Uganda beneficiaries, such as members of rebel forces, state agents or political exiles. Although they can be adopted unilateral acts of the state including as executive decrees, amnesties are usually established as part of a peace settlement that is given a force of law. 287. The exemption from criminal prosecution and, possibly, civil action achieved through amnesty is typically limited to conduct occurring during a specific period and/or involving a specific event or circumstance, usually in armed conflict. Typically, these are not normal or ordinary circumstances. Rather, they are characterized lack of political and socio-economic stability, weak or dysfunctional institutions and diminished security. In such conditions, the compatibility of measures amounting to amnesties with the African Charter can be looked at in two ways. First, as noted in the substantive part of this decision, instead of the direct application of human rights standards that is ordinarily done in normal times, it is the standards of IHL, which apply in times of conflict that are used to assess the existence of violation of Charter rights. Second, such measures have also to be examined on the basis of the limitations clause and hence on the basis of whether they are justifiable and proportional limitations acceptable under international law. 288. Amnesties may exclude some or all conduct, including those that may be deemed crimes under international law. It is now common to make a distinction between blanket amnesties and conditional amnesties. Blanket amnesties, also known as unconditional amnesties, can be defined as those that “exempt broad categories of serious human rights offenders from prosecutions and/or civil liability without the beneficiaries’ having to satisfy preconditions, including those aimed at ensuring full disclosure of what they know about crimes covered by the amnesty, on individual basis”.69 As they have the effect of excluding any form of accountability and hence enabling impunity, blanket amnesties are deemed to be 69 Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights, n 74 above, p. 8. 77 62nd Ordinary Session, 25 April – 9 July 2018