[HRA 31] [HRA 31] LAWS OF FIJI s 31 Letters from prisoners or patients 31 A letter written by— (a) a person in custody; or (b) a patient in a hospital, and addressed to the Commission must be forwarded immediately, unopened and unaltered, to the Commission by the person in charge of the place or institution where the writer of the letter is detained or in which he or she is a patient. [HRA 32] Investigation procedure 32 (1) Before investigating any matter within its jurisdiction, the Commission must inform— (a) the complainant (if any); (b) the person alleged to be aggrieved, if not the complainant; (c) the person to whom the investigation relates; and (d) in relation to an investigation relating to a department the person holding or performing the duties of the office of Secretary of the department, of the Commission’s intention to make the investigation. (2) An investigation under this Act must be conducted in private. (3) The Commission may hear or obtain information from any person whom the Commission considers can assist in the investigation and may make whatever enquiries it thinks fit. (4) Nothing in this Act requires the Commission to hold any hearing and no person is entitled as of right to be heard by the Commission. (5) The Commission must not in any report make any comment that is adverse to or derogatory of any person to whom a complaint relates without— (a) providing the person with a reasonable opportunity of being heard; and (b) fairly setting out in the report the person’s defence (if any). (6) In conducting an investigation, the Commission is not bound by the strict rules of evidence or procedure, but must act fairly at all times. [HRA 33] Conciliation 33 (1) The Commission may, before commencing an investigation, or during or after an investigation, call a conciliation conference of the parties to the conciliation by formally requesting, by post, telephone, facsimile, electronic mail or otherwise, the attendance of each party at a time and place specified. (2) If a person fails to comply with a request made under subsection (1) the Commission may issue a summons requiring the person to attend a conciliation conference at a time and place specified in the summons. (3) The objectives of a conciliation conference are to identify the matters at issue between the parties and to use the best endeavours of the Commission to secure a settlement between the parties on the matters at issue. [HRA 34] Power to require information to be provided 34 (1) Subject to this section and to section 35, for the purposes of an investigation a Commissioner may, by notice in writing, require any person to furnish any information, or to produce any document, record or thing in the possession or under the control of that person that is in the opinion of the Commissioner relevant to the investigation. Service 0 10,802 Job: specialist/lof/allvols/serv_0/cap3a_399501 Page: 18 Date: 21/11/2016 Time: 23:31:5 bwpageid:: 10802:: bwservice::0::