A peace agreement is a formal, signed document that brings to an end a conflict between two or more States or non-State parties. Usually, such an agreement will have several components that are necessary for addressing the immediate causes of a conflict and establishing the foundations for sustainable peace.
Often, the first components will relate to how the warring parties manage their own armed forces and/or organized armed groups (eg disarmament, demobilization, rehabilitation and reintegration of members of the armed bands of the revolutionary organizations; restructuring and training of government armed forces; and democratization and power-sharing). Other common provisions include those relating to justice and human rights issues (eg amnesty clauses; arts III-VIII, XVII and XVII Lome Agreement), and the establishment of bodies entrusted with investigating the causes of the conflict, including boundary commissions in cases of territorial disputes (art. 3 Peace Agreement between the Government of the Federal Democratic Republic of Ethiopia and the Government of the State of Eritrea).
It is important to understand that, however a peace agreement is structured, it will only be effective if the core substantive components are successfully implemented. This is particularly true in those cases in which the negotiated process has been a lengthy one, and in which substantial efforts have gone into building an environment for achieving peace. The section devoted to this building block addresses the key elements of such an agreement, and provides a useful taxonomy for understanding the different types of agreements that can be reached.
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