The Commissioner for Victims and Survivors of the Troubles was a Northern Ireland political appointee responsible for coordinating the delivery and coordination of services for victims and survivors of the political violence of the Troubles.
The office was established on 24 October 2005 by Peter Hain, Secretary of State for Northern Ireland, who named Bertha McDougall as the first (interim) commissioner [1].
The Government had a public consultation on its proposals to enact legislation to establish the post of Commissioner for Victims and Survivors in Northern Ireland. This finished on 15 September 2006.
In January 2008 amid much controversy OFMDFM NI announced that the Commissioner was to be replaced by a cross-community four-person Victims Commission. This was seen as an attempt to be fair to all sections of the community, but some victims' groups were still unhappy at this new development