Mitchell Principles

All involved in negotiations had to affirm their commitment to:

*To democratic and exclusively peaceful means of resolving political issues;

*To the total disarmament of all paramilitary 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.

(Report of the International Body on Arms Decommissioning, 22 January 1996)