Chapter 2 - Report of the Complaints, Monitoring and Inquiries Group I. COMPLAINTS AND MONITORING DIVISION To deny people their human rights is to challenge their very humanity. Nelson Mandela The Division took various measures to review and strengthen its working procedures to ensure effective handling of complaints. These included developing a Complaints Handling Manual and Standard Operating Procedure on Monitoring Public Assemblies. The Commission reclassified the categories of complaints, basing these on the fundamental liberties outlined in the Federal Constitution, the Universal Declaration of Human Rights; and the country’s obligations under international treaties on the rights of children, women, persons with disabilities and Indigenous Peoples as well as on the elimination of racial discrimination. This has enabled the Commission to identify specific human rights infringements whenever complaints are received. Procedures have also been put in place to ensure that complainants are informed as early as possible of the Commission’s actions. However, this has had to take into account legislative constraints where court cases are involved, as well as availability of human resources. A hotline was set up for complaints on infringement of human rights in the conduct of the 13th General Election on 5 May. Of the 59 complaints received, three were related to general matters, while 56 were related to procedures and forwarded to the Election Commission (EC) for further action. 1. RESOLUTION OF COMPLAINTS (a) Statistics Over the year, the Commission received a total of 624 complaints at its Kuala Lumpur (357), Sabah (235) and Sarawak (32) offices. Of these, 14 were in the form of memoranda. 40