The Northern Ireland Civic Forum has called for additional funds to be made available to tackle sectarian tensions across the North.
At its eighth plenary meeting since its setting-up more than a year ago, the forum discussed its response to the British government's community relations policy, describing the programme's budget as "exceedingly modest".
The forum, which met in Cookstown, Co Tyrone, warned of the dangers in making direct comparisons between the Catholic and Protestant communities because of the "more complex and more fragmented nature" of the Protestant community.
"As the two communities are not mirror images of each other, some Protestant and Unionist communities encounter an inability on the part of the funders and even community relations practitioners to understand where they are coming from", it concluded.
Forum members called on people to accept that the new Bill of Rights, would safeguard everybody's rights. They suggested an extension of the consultation process to obtain the views of as many citizens as possible. "Some people are clearly better placed than others to take part in the consultation process - there is a danger that consultation processes further marginalise the marginalised. This suggests that different and innovative forms of consultation, reflecting the circumstances of different communities, may have resulted in wider participation."