HUMAN RIGHTS COMMISSION OF SRI LANKA, Annual Report 2020 INVESTIGATIONS AND INQUIRIES 3.1. Overview The Commission receives complaints from the public while at the same time the Commission is empowered under section 14 of its parent statute to, on its own motion, inquire into issues which reveal violations of fundamental rights. 3.1.1. Strengthening working methods: The Commission introduced and implemented new working methods and enhanced existing mechanisms in order to increase the efficiency and responsiveness of the Inquiries and Investigations division (I&I).  The Commission launched the Human Rights Information System (HURIN) to streamline the complaints mechanism and to facilitate receiving complaints electronically. The HURIN system enabled complainants to make complaints without visiting the Commission in person, especially during the COVID-19 related lockdown periods.  The thematic cluster method adopted by the non-implementation monitoring unit of the I&I division in 2019 to efficiently follow up on the recommendations not implemented by government institutions has been successfully active in 2020. (See chapter 4.3. for further information on this unit)  The appeals mechanism introduced in 2018 for all disposed complaints other than for finalized complaints on which recommendations were issued was successfully active in 2020. Despite challenging working conditions resulting from the pandemic, a significant number of appeals were reviewed during 2020 in order to determine if there were grounds for re-entertaining complaints. 39