Executive Summary 3. Assessment of Complaint Handling by the Official Agencies with ICHR 3.1 ICHR’s role receiving and following up on the citizens’ complaints The ICHR received 2656 complaints which are classified as follows: 1551 complaints in the West Bank and 1105 complaints in Gaza Strip. The civil complaints represent 28% of total number of complaints which amounted to 2656 complaints. The number of complaints pertaining to security issues filed to ICHR amounts to 1901 complaints, representing 72% of the total number of complaints that amounted to 2656. The number of child-related complaints filed to ICHR amounted to 204 complaints and the number of complaints related to persons with disabilities amounted to 45 complaints. ICHR adopts diverse approaches to follow up on the citizens’ complaints with the complainants. Such approaches are listed on the complaints manual adopted by the ICHR. To follow up on the complaints, ICHR uses phone calls, meetings, field follow-ups, visits, internal memos, workshops, written correspondence, and written reminders. Usually, the ICHR receives replies to such correspondence. In this regard, it should be noted that these approaches are the same used over the past years. The number of field follow-ups conducted with the security and civil agencies in the West Bank and Gaza Strip reached 3309 follow-ups, including phone calls, meetings, visits, and filing of recommendations. ICHR sent approximately 2273 primary letters and reminders. The rates of replies in the West Bank and Gaza Strip are as follows: the West Bank-based ICHR offices sent 1063 primary letters and reminders and received 644 replies thereto where the ratio of replies to the correspondence reached 61%. In Gaza Strip, ICHR sent 1210 primary letters and reminders and received only 16 replies thereto; therefore, the ratio of replies to the correspondence represents 1.3% which indicates lack of serious cooperation on the part of Gaza Strip. The Independent Commission for Human Rights (ICHR) 43