Sonya McMullan, from Women’s Aid, said that for survivors and families, the delay feels like “you are putting your life on hold”.
She said there was a “risk” that people will feel “I can’t do this. I’m going to stop this now”.
“Even before this strike occurred we had huge delays within our criminal justice system,” she said.
She added that “we need to invest now in the whole system” and said the system was “not trauma focused”.
“It’s not victim focused,” she said.
The Ulster Unionist Party’s (UUP) justice spokesperson Doug Beattie said: “There may well be a dispute between the Department of Justice and the barristers, but the reality is the people who will pay the price of this is going to be the victims.”
He said one of his biggest concerns is that the industrial action is “open ended”.
“At least if they gave an end date then people could look at when their case could be listed.”
He called on the department and the barristers to go back into “intensive talks” to stop the action from taking place.