The Mitchell Principles were six ground rules agreed by the Irish and

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governments and the political parties in

Northern Ireland Northern Ireland ( ; ) is a Countries of the United Kingdom, part of the United Kingdom in the north-east of the island of Ireland. It has been #Descriptions, variously described as a country, province or region. Northern Ireland shares Repub ...

regarding participation in talks on the future of the region. They were named for

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Senator A senate is a deliberative assembly, often the upper house or Legislative chamber, chamber of a bicameral legislature. The name comes from the Ancient Rome, ancient Roman Senate (Latin: ''Senatus''), so-called as an assembly of the senior ...

George Mitchell, who was heavily involved in the

Northern Ireland peace process The Northern Ireland peace process includes the events leading up to the 1994 Provisional Irish Republican Army (IRA) ceasefire, the end of most of the violence of the Troubles, the Good Friday Agreement of 1998, and subsequent political develop ...

as the United States Special Envoy for Northern Ireland. All involved in negotiations had to affirm their commitment: *To democratic and exclusively peaceful means of resolving political issues; *To the total disarmament of all

paramilitary A paramilitary is a military that is not a part of a country's official or legitimate armed forces. The Oxford English Dictionary traces the use of the term "paramilitary" as far back as 1934. Overview Though a paramilitary is, by definiti ...

organisations; *To agree that such disarmament must be verifiable to the satisfaction of an independent commission; *To renounce for themselves, and to oppose any effort by others, to use force, or threaten to use force, to influence the course or the outcome of all-party negotiations; *To agree to abide by the terms of any agreement reached in all-party negotiations and to resort to democratic and exclusively peaceful methods in trying to alter any aspect of that outcome with which they may disagree; and, *To urge that "punishment" killings and beatings stop and to take effective steps to prevent such actions.Knox, Colin and al. ''Peacebuilding in Northern Ireland, Israel and South Africa'' St. Martin's Press, LLC: 2000. page 39

Sinn Féin Sinn Féin ( ; ; ) is an Irish republican and democratic socialist political party active in both the Republic of Ireland and Northern Ireland. The History of Sinn Féin, original Sinn Féin organisation was founded in 1905 by Arthur Griffit ...

's acceptance of the principles was strongly criticised by more hardline republicans and led to resignations within the party.

References

{{Reflist Northern Ireland peace process 1996 in international relations 1996 in Northern Ireland 1996 in Ireland