The Good Friday Agreement (GFA) or the Belfast Agreement (irish: Comhaonté Aoine an Chéasta or Comhaonté Bhéal Feirste; Ulster-Scots: Guid Friday Greeance or Bilfawst Greeance)[1] is a couple of agreements signed on 10 April 1998 that put an end to most of the violence of the Troubles, a political conflict in Northern Ireland that had erupted since the late 1960s. This was an important development in the Northern Ireland peace process in the 1990s. Northern Ireland`s current system of de-decentralized government is based on the agreement. The agreement also created a number of institutions between Northern Ireland and the Republic of Ireland, as well as between the Republic of Ireland and the United Kingdom. The multi-party agreement required the parties to “use all the influences they might have” to obtain the dismantling of all paramilitary weapons within two years of the adoption of the agreement by referendums. The standardization process has forced the British government to reduce the number and role of its armed forces in Northern Ireland “to a level compatible with a normal peaceful society.” These include the elimination of security measures and the abolition of special emergency powers in Northern Ireland. The Irish government has pledged to conduct a “thorough review” of its violations of national law. As part of the agreement, the British and Irish governments committed to holding referendums in Northern Ireland and the Republic on 22 May 1998. The referendum on Northern Ireland is expected to approve the deal reached at the multi-party talks.
The Republic of Ireland`s referendum should approve the Anglo-Irish agreement and facilitate the modification of the Irish constitution in accordance with the agreement. On Friday, April 10, 1998, at 5:30 p.m., an American politician named George Mitchell, who led the talks, said: “I am pleased to announce that the two governments and political parties in Northern Ireland have reached an agreement.” During negotiations on the UK`s planned withdrawal from the European Union in 2019, the EU presented a position paper on its concerns about Britain`s support for the Good Friday agreement during Brexit. The position paper deals with issues such as the prevention of a hard border, north-south cooperation between the Republic of Northern Ireland, the birthright of all Northern Ireland residents (as stated in the agreement) and the common travel area. [31] [32] Anyone who was born in Northern Ireland and is therefore entitled to an Irish passport under the Good Friday Agreement may retain European citizenship after Brexit. [33] As part of the EU`s Brexit negotiating guidelines, the UK was asked to convince other EU members that these issues had been addressed in order to enter the second phase of the Brexit negotiations. In order to protect North-South cooperation and avoid controls at the Irish border, the United Kingdom, under the leadership of Prime Minister Theresa May, said it was ready to protect the agreement in all its parties and “in the absence of agreed solutions, the Uk would maintain full alignment with the rules of the internal market and customs union, which are now or in the future. , North-South cooperation supporting the island`s economy and protecting the 1998 agreement” by acknowledging that “it is the restriction that nothing is agreed until everything has been agreed”. [29] [34] [35] [36] This provision was part of an agreement between the United Kingdom and the EU, which was rejected three times by the British Parliament. [37] May`s successor, Prime Minister Boris Johnson, initially cited the “Irish backstop” that was to be withdrawn from the proposed agreement,[38] but finally accepted it after the negotiation of a new agreement between the UK and the EU on 17 October 2019.
[39] [40] In September 2020, northern Ireland Secretary Brandon Lewis informed the House of Commons that the British government intended to violate international law in a “specific and limited” manner by introducing a new bill that gives the British government new national powers to circumvent certain international contractual obligations to the EU, such as the pre-state