Republican ex-prisoners' group Coiste na n-Iarchimi last night called for the lifting of bans preventing its members from serving as police officers or joining district policing partnerships.
At the launch of its annual report in Derry, the group highlighted a series of "continuing difficulties" faced by ex-prisoners.
Coiste na n-Iarchimi also repeated Sinn Féin's call for the criminal records of "political ex-prisoners" to be expunged.
"In response to the discrimination and barriers facing our constituency – which also affect loyalist ex-prisoners – we have developed a straightforward policy platform," said Mike Ritchie, the group's director.
"Discrimination against political ex-prisoners should be made illegal and 'criminal' convictions attached to political ex-prisoners should be expunged.
'A policy initiative should take place in both jurisdictions on the island to implement the commitment with regard to ex-prisoners of the Good Friday Agreement."
Coiste chairman Raymond McCartney said the report revealed "how little has been done to address the legal barriers facing ex-prisoners".
"This is most starkly highlighted by correspondence from the Ambulance Service indicating that political ex-prisoners 'would not be considered suitable for appointment in a public service such as ours'," he said.
"Such attempts to persist in the criminalisation of republican ex-prisoners are bizarre in a society where you can be an ex-prisoner and a minister in the assembly, an elected MP in Westminster or TD in Leinster House, the Mayor of Belfast, the headmaster of a secondary school, but be barred from providing a vital service to your local community as a taxi driver, ambulance worker or a postal worker."
Among the "continuing difficulties for political ex-prisoners" are long term unemployment and "fears over personal security", Mr Ritchies said.
"They experience consistently high levels of long term unemployment, are barred from applying for many areas of employment either through explicit discrimination or general prejudice and cannot access employment outside of their own areas for fears over personal security," he said.
"An example of general prejudice was evident in the hostile debate over whether ex-prisoners should be allowed to serve on district policing partnerships," Mr Ritchie added.
Ex-prisoners cannot adopt children, have difficulty applying for taxi licences and "face explicit legal blocks ... on ex-prisoners becoming police officers".
A fresh political row was sparked last month when Sinn Féin repeated their call for the criminal records of 15,000 republicans jailed during the Troubles to be erased.
