Victims debate: Delegates branded treatment of victims of the Troubles as "shameful" and the British government of "undervaluing" the work of victims' groups.
Lagan Valley MP Jeffrey Donaldson said the recently abandoned on-the-runs legislation was "one of the most despicable pieces of legislation in British political history".
"For too long, government policy has put the perpetrator front and centre," he said.
"It is high time that the government started to right their many wrongs." Mr Donaldson argued that the inability to provide a suitable victims' settlement was a central failing of the Belfast Agreement.
"The gates of the Maze were flung open and terrorist prisoners were allowed to walk free without completing their sentences, when nearly 2,000 murders in Northern Ireland remain unsolved with little prospect of anyone ever being brought to justice."
Fermanagh-South Tyrone Assembly member Arlene Foster, demanded more funding for victim support groups, and accused some members of government of "undervaluing" the service they provide.
"For many people, these groups have allowed them to confront what they have been through and seek help for the first time," she said.
"In order to provide a stable environment for those who are providing services for victims, there must be stability through certainty of funding."
David Simpson, the newly-elected Upper Bann MP who defeated UUP leader David Trimble, told the conference of his experiences in talking to victims of the Troubles.
"I have heard accounts of decades of physical pain, mental anguish, trauma, fear, distress and a feeling of near-abandonment by those in authority."
He went on to accuse the British government of "setting the interests of innocent victims against those of the bombers", and pledged that the DUP will "ensure that those in authority are reminded of their duty, and pressed to do what is right".
However, the DUP praised the introduction of Bertha McDougall as victims' commissioner, the creation of the PSNI historical inquiries team and the provision of £30 million (€44 million) for its work. Mr Donaldson called the move "necessary and long overdue", but stressed that "we have a long way to go yet before we can say that the victim and not the violent terrorist is the focus of government policy".
"None of us wants to see another single victim created by the acts of terrorists. But the future cannot be built upon a foundation where victims are overlooked."