Channels, Fall 2018

Channels • 2018 • Volume 3 • Number 1 Page 45 Ireland that there could be benefits for cooperating politically rather than acting out violently (Mason, 2017). Furthermore, President Clinton visited Northern Ireland three times during his presidency, making him the first United States president to visit Northern Ireland while in office. His visits were extremely beneficial in encouraging the people of Northern Ireland in their attempts at peace. Clinton never considered himself a guarantor in the peace process, rather he was an enabler. He pressured and encouraged the negotiators until they reached an agreement (“Northern Ireland,” 2000). Another individual who was hugely influential in the Northern Irish peace process was Senator George Mitchell. On November 28, 1995 the British and Irish governments established an International Body, whose role was to advise on the topic of decommissioning. They determined that this body would be composed of an American, a Scandinavian, and a person from the Commonwealth. Senator George Mitchell was chosen as the American, tasked with chairing the body. Because of their investigations, the body wrote a report, which contained six principles known as the “Mitchell Principles.” These principles stated that all parties involved in the negotiations had to affirm their commitment to democratic and exclusively peaceful means of resolving political issues to the total disarmament of all paramilitary organizations, and to agree that such disarmament must be verifiable to the satisfaction of an independent commission. They also required them 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. Lastly, they must urge that "punishment" killings and beatings stop and take effective steps to prevent such actions (Crocker et al., 1999). Unfortunately however, after the report was delivered, the IRA bombed Canary Wharf in London. 4 The peace process, although halted, did not stop, and in some ways the bombing showed how necessary a peace process was. Senator Mitchell was asked to chair a Plenary Committee. Through much negotiation and debate, the Plenary Committee decided on an agenda, which acted as a roadmap for the rest of the negotiations. Thanks in large part to Senator Mitchell’s leadership and structured agenda items, these negotiations eventually lead to the Good Friday Agreement (Crocker et al., 1999). Like Northern Ireland, Colombia also endured years of violence followed by a peace process that contained many false starts. Also, like the Northern Irish peace process, the Colombian peace process was impacted by various interest groups. Women’s organizations lobbied the government vigorously until they were also included in the peace process. This lobbying led the Colombian government and FARC to create a Gender Subcommission. The commission invited delegations from various interest groups, including Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender, and Intersex (LGBTI) groups, to weigh in on gender issues. According to Kristian Herbolzheimer, director of Colombia and Philippines programmes at 4 Canary Wharf was a financial district in London. The IRA announced the end of the ceasefire on February 9, 1996. Hours after this announcement, they detonated a 1,500-pound fertilizer bomb. The bomb killed two storekeepers and injured over 100 civilians. Furthermore, it caused at least $140 million in damages (Stevenson, 1996).