An Assembly member for the Northern Ireland Women's Coalition, Ms Monica McWilliams, has described a handover of paramilitary weapons as a gesture of "self-confidence and political strength, not of surrender".
At her party's annual conference in Newcastle, Co Down, on Saturday, Ms McWilliams told about 70 party delegates that voluntary decommissioning was an "imaginative step that can be taken by men and women who have confidence in both their aspirations and their politics".
"It is the coalition's firm belief that any voluntary decommissioning of weapons by paramilitary organisations is not surrender . . . It is not a negotiating ploy, it is a potential trigger for political transformation.
"The coalition is convinced that the Independent Commission on Decommissioning accepts this perspective and will do all in its power to facilitate a decommissioning process that respects the interdependence of all aspects of the Good Friday agreement," she added.
Ms McWilliams said the party equally respected the difficulties facing the Ulster Unionist Party.
"We respect the honesty of David Trimble when he reflected on the `cold house' of Northern Irish politics as experienced by many nationalists.
"However, we feel that this analysis needs to be taken further. A peace process based on conflict transformation is not about positing `extremists' as against some `moderate centre'. It is about honestly examining the issues that give rise to genuine grievances and seeking to address the causes of conflict."
The successful conclusion to the Mitchell review had opened a door to conflict transformation and eventually, conflict resolution, she said.
Ms McWilliams criticised anti-agreement parties who, she said, were engaged in defensive politics aimed at "protecting their own patch".
"They - the DUP, UK Unionist Party and Union First grouping - fear the loss of power, influence and a position of dominance which they consider their due.
"All demands by the Women's Coalition to create a consensus style of politics have been read by them as a demand for surrender. They lack the moral and political courage to move beyond their fears and remain the wreckers, not makers, of political progress," she said.
The coalition members were urged to throw their support behind political parties which had "stretched their constituencies to breaking-point" in an attempt to find a peaceful resolution to the conflict. In the concluding speech at the party's one-day conference, Ms Jane Morrice, the party's other Assembly member, welcomed the political progress made over the past week but stressed the need to "keep cool heads and collectively confront the opposition".
"Gigantic steps have been taken but more are needed to unlock a door that has been bolted and barred for 30 years. The Belfast Agreement laid the path to the door and for the past 18 months we have been trying to find the keys," she said.
Delegates unanimously passed an emergency motion to back the outcome of the Mitchell review as the "only way of achieving the implementation of the Good Friday agreement". It also called for an increased budget for the newly established Human Rights Commission.