Pardon girl taking refuge (7)
I believe the answer is:
amnesty
'pardon' is the definition.
(amnestying is a kind of pardoning)
'girl taking refuge' is the wordplay.
'girl' becomes 'amy'.
'taking' means one lot of letters goes inside another.
'refuge' becomes 'nest'.
'amy' going around 'nest' is 'AMNESTY'.
(Other definitions for amnesty that I've seen before include "General pardon, usually political" , "Period of pardon" , "Dispensation" , "Legal pardon" , "A general political pardon, perhaps for tax defaulters" .)