Victims Commissioner: 'Public must have their say on legacy issues'
Public consultation open until September
The Victims Commissioner for Northern Ireland says time is running out for people in Northern Ireland to share their opinion on how legacy issues are addressed here.
Judith Thompson is launching a series of events to raise awareness of a public consultation on the issue which is open until September.
Mrs Thompson says it is an opportunity for the public to give their views on plans which were agreed by all of the main parties here as part of the Stormont House Agreement four years ago.
The proposals include an historical investigations unit, independent Commission for information retrieval, implementation and reconciliation group and an oral history archive.
Judith said this may be the only chance for citizens to inform proposed laws on the issue here:
"There are four really important pieces of legislation out for consultation and a fifth matter of a pension for the severely disabled which needs to be out there.
"So please engage, tell us what you think.
"Even if there are high levels of concern or mistrust within Northern Ireland politics, it is so important that you get into the detail of this because this opportunity may not come again."
Judith said the lack of mechanisms to deal with the past here are causing distress and upset to Trouble's victim's families and this needs to be resolved.
"We cannot deal with the past by ignoring it and people are harmed by a constant process of finger pointing and accusations made, with no process for delivering proper investigation."
Victims groups are backing calls for the public to get involved in the consultation process.
Minty Thompson's mother Kathleen was killed by the British army in 1971 and her family have waited almost 50 years for an inquest.
She says she wants answers around her mother's death and hopes people will have their say:
"46 years ago my mother was shot dead by the British army at our own home in Creggan in Derry.
"It was horrific, I was 12 years old and there was six children in the family.
"There was never an investigation into our mother's death so at the minute, we'd only been granted an inquest at the beginning of last year but we're still in the process, so 46 years later, we're only now trying to get an inquest.
"The British army never acknowledged, when my mother died she wasn't even recognised as a victim so therefore what we want, for closure for us is for the truth that the British army did shoot her and the acknowledgement that she was an innocent woman."