POLICY PAPER Rifaat Mikkawi and Amal Hamdan Breaking the Cycle. Conditional Amnesty in Sudan. The war that has plagued Sudan since April 2023 has been marked by significant violations of human rights and international humanitarian law. Civilians are be­aring the brunt of the violence. Consequently, calls for accountability and justice are high on the agenda of Su­danese civil society. In the past, conflicts in Sudan have either ended with a blanked amnesty for the perpetrators of crimes, howe­ver, or initial commitments to transitional justice have not been implemented. At the same time, the current war underlines the deep costs of this impunity. Because armed actors responsible for mass atrocities already two decades ago were not held accountable, they have been able to consolidate their power. This then led to the ri­valry in the security sector at the heart of the current conflict. This brief argues for a way to overcome the seeming di­chotomy between blanket amnesty and criminal accoun­tability. Using examples from South Africa, Uganda and Sierra Leone, it shows how conditional amnesty provisi­ons can prove effective in ensuring peace and justice. It argues that conditional amnesty does not need to pre­vent all prosecutions. A hybrid court with national and international elements can play an important role in this regard. Sudan has one of the highest rates of amnesty use. Almost every single peace deal in Sudan has granted blanket, un­conditional amnesty. Advocates of accountability and justi­ce for Sudan, particularly for international crimes carried out since April 2023, may be tempted to frame the debate around amnesty simply as“amnesty versus no amnesty.” But there is considerable diversity in designing amnesties: namely between unconditional blanket amnesties and con­ditional, individual amnesties. While it may not be possible to avoid amnesties to end the current conflict, it is indeed possible to avoid a blanket, unconditional amnesty. Conditional amnesty provides that amnesty is granted to individual applicants that meet certain conditions. This of­ten involves perpetrators individually applying through a formal process. A conditional amnesty process that public­ly names applicants and what they have done is a form of accountability and diminishes future impunity. Blanket am­nesty is all encompassing: collective immunity is granted without conditions. No one is named and no one needs to Breaking the Cycle 1