Victims of the Troubles are taking part in a conference in Enniskillen, Co Fermanagh, to consider how they can ensure their voices are heard in the political process.
The Hear and Now two-day conference, which began yesterday, is organised by the Northern Ireland Voluntary Trust.
NIVT director Ms Avila Kilmurray said that when the conference was planned the political situation looked "more promising". "Victims and survivors groups, more than any other section of the community, experience enormous anxiety when the political process stalls and appears to stumble.
"It is not that any party or sectional interest exclusively represents victims, but that any threat to progress carries with it the fear of a return to violence. More than anything else, victims and survivors need to know that violence, and the threat of violence, belongs to Northern Ireland's past." Ms Kilmurray said it was appropriate the conference was being held in Enniskillen. where 11 people were killed by a bomb attack on Remembrance Sunday in 1987.