The UK government's proposed Bill to deal with Northern Ireland's troubled past is "perpetrator-friendly and perpetrator-focused," the head of a victims' group has said.
Sandra Peake of the Wave Trauma Centre said victims and survivors are fearful of the ramifications of the proposed immunity for information deal, which has been mooted.
The Northern Ireland Troubles (Legacy and Reconciliation) Bill envisages offering immunity from prosecution to people who are deemed to have co-operated with the information retrieval body.
Criminal prosecutions could still take place for those who do not.
It seeks to establish an Independent Commission for Reconciliation and Information Recovery (ICRIR) to review deaths and other incidents.
However, the tweaked Bill has been opposed by the majority of victims' groups and political parties.
It passed its second reading last month, with the support of Conservative MPs, but was not backed by any of the Northern Ireland MPs.
More than 3,500 people were killed during the Troubles.
Conservative MPs hope the measures will stop "vexatious" action against British military personnel who served in Northern Ireland.
Giving evidence to the Northern Ireland Affairs Committee, Ms Peake said there has been "a huge disrespect to those who paid the ultimate price".
She described victims as "fearful for what is going to come".
"They're fearful that people will get immunity and approach them," she told MPs.
"There's an intimacy of violence in Northern Ireland that is seldom understood, that sometimes the people who are the perpetrators are living in the next street or they see you at church or at the shops and they wink at you, they jeer at you, they let you know they are still there - and that is before any immunity comes," Ms Peake added.
"What people read from this Bill is the power lies with the perpetrator, it doesn't lie with the victim or the survivor, the power lies with the perpetrator.
"This is perpetrator-friendly, it is perpetrator-focused and ultimately the perpetrator will win from this - it won't be the family."
Ms Peake said victims are also scared that, once granted immunity, perpetrators will embark on lecture tours and write books about their pasts.
"We need to protect our victims and survivors, and we need to ensure that they're looked after, but giving an immunity is not looking after them - giving an immunity is putting the perpetrator in charge of them and in charge of the version of truth, their truth, that they will share," she added.
