We prove that Mal'tsev and Goursat categories may be characterized through variations of the Shifting Lemma, that is classically expressed in terms of three congruences R, S and T , and characterizes congruence modular varieties. We first show that a regular category C is a Mal'tsev category if and only if the Shifting Lemma holds for reflexive relations on the same object in C. Moreover, we prove that a regular category C is a Goursat category if and only if the Shifting Lemma holds for a reflexive relation S and reflexive and positive relations R and T in C. In particular this provides a new characterization of 2-permutable and 3-permutable varieties and quasi-varieties of universal algebras.

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We prove that connectors are stable under quotients in any (regular) Goursat category. As a consequence, the category Conn(C) of connectors in C is a Goursat category whenever C is. This implies that Goursat categories can be characterised in terms of a simple property of internal groupoids.