Nationalists who affirm that their relatives were killed by the British army, the RUC or as a result of security force collusion with loyalist gangs have reiterated their demands for the disclosure of truth about the deaths.
The "State Violence - State the Truth" conference at the weekend was hosted by the Relatives for Justice and brought together members of campaigns including the Bloody Sunday Justice Campaign, the Pat Finucane Centre, the Loughgall Campaign for Truth and Justice, the United Campaign Against Plastic Bullets and the Dublin-Monaghan Campaign.
About 350 people attended the event in Dungannon, Co Tyrone. The guest speaker, Mrs Doreen Lawrence, mother of Stephen, the black London teenager allegedly killed by a mob of white youths (who had charges against them for the attack discontinued) said she "lost only one person. I believe that there are families here that have lost two and three relatives. I cannot comprehend such loss."
The Lawrence family's solicitor, Mr Imran Khan, encouraged people to attempt to expose the system when it failed.
He said it was only half way through the 56 days of public hearings on the Lawrence killing that senior London Metropolitan police officers had given a "begrudging" admission that their investigation had been flawed. Ms Eilish McCabe, a founder member of the Relatives for Justice group and the sister of Aidan McAnespie, shot dead at a British army checkpoint in 1988, said campaigners would not allow the truth to be buried alongside their relatives. Mr Tony Doherty, whose father was killed on Bloody Sunday in January 1972, said the time had come for the families of more than 400 people killed by either the British army or the RUC to act together to ensure their voices were heard. With the new Bloody Sunday inquiry the relatives had a chance to "stake our claim on the truth".
The son of one of the first men to die at the outbreak of violence in 1969 argued for radical police reform and criticised unionist campaigns to retain the RUC name and badge. Mr Sam McLarnon said his father was killed by police fire through the family's living room window in the Ardoyne area of Belfast.
In a later session speakers examined the mechanisms for seeking disclosure of information surrounding the killings. Ms Jane Winter, director of the British-Irish Human Rights Watch, said the four main methods were through the European Court of Human Rights, the United Nations, international human rights groups or international pressure.
"You have to be immensely persistent. It can take years to get justice and it can be painful and frustrating, as many of you know," she said.