2. 2. Complaint Handling Process
A database is maintained by the division to identify the nature of the case, details of petitioners
and respondents, name of the Inquiry Officer and status of the case. An officer or two officers
are scheduled every day to give a hearing to complainants who visit the office and who seek
advice. In addition, complaints are also received through the hotline. The relevant officer who
accepts written complaints also gives advice on other institutions that may be more appropriate
to inquire into the complaint. The Duty Officer attends to an average of 35 complainants during
office hours per day.
The second stage of the complaint handling process is to decide which cases to proceed with by
checking whether a case falls within the HRCSL mandate. If a complaint can be proceeded with,
the preliminary steps of the investigation include obtaining reports from respondents, calling for
their observations and scrutinizing of reports. Steps are then taken to issue and send summons to
the parties concerned. HRCSL referred cases which did not come within the purview of the
Commission to other institutions.
Some of the referral institutions are the Public Service
Commission, the National Police Commission, the National Child Protection Authority, the
Official Languages Commission, Commissioner of Labour and the Legal Aid Commission.
The Commission is empowered to facilitate parties to obtain remedies through conciliation and
mediation. The Commission conducts inquiries and investigations and makes recommendations
to relevant respondent authorities in instances of violation of fundamental rights. Regional
offices undertake preliminary investigations/inquiries into complaints referred by the Head
Office or complaints directly filed at the regional offices
Requests for reconsideration of recommendations issued by HRCSL are considered and further
inquiries are conducted into such cases when it is thought necessary. Such inquiries were
generally conducted before the Chairperson of the Commission.
(Please refer to annexes 2C (Complaints No: HRC/4429/09, HRC/1188/10) & 2D (Complaint
No. HRC/630/15/1-14) at the end of this report for an illustration of the complaint handling
process of the HRCSL)
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