The commission was composed of: Its objective was to facilitate the decommissioning of firearms, ammunition and explosives, by: In the Good Friday Agreement, signed in 1998, the participants reaffirmed their commitment to the total disarmament of all paramilitary organisations, and confirmed their intention to continue to work constructively and in good faith with the Independent Commission, and to use any influence they may have, to achieve the decommissioning of all paramilitary arms within two years following endorsement in referendums North and South of the agreement and in the context of the implementation of the overall settlement.
Decommissioning of Provisional Irish Republican Army (PIRA) weaponry was often used as a necessary condition before Unionists would agree to the full implementation of the Agreement including power sharing.
In 2000, Martti Ahtisaari, former President of Finland, and Cyril Ramaphosa, South African political and business leader, were appointed to inspect IRA weapons dumps.
This was confirmed by two witnesses independent of the commission, Catholic priest Father Alec Reid, and former president of the Methodist Church in Ireland, Reverend Harold Good.
Among the weaponry estimated (by Jane's Intelligence Review) to have been destroyed as part of this entire process were: There had been three previous acts of decommissioning by the PIRA which were also overseen by the commission.
[12] The UDA's decommissioning was confirmed by General de Chastelain, Lord Eames, the former archbishop of Armagh and Sir George Quigley, a former top civil servant.