Protecting, Promoting and Enforcing Human Rights and Fundamental Freedom 6.0 Protection of Human Rights Activities in 2015 6.2 Introduction The Commission carried out a number of activities for the protection of human rights which include receiving and investigating complaints, monitoring the human rights situation in the country, carrying out monitoring and inspection visits to prisons and places of detention so as to protect the rights of the institutionalized as listed below. 6.2. Complaints received in the reporting period The Commission has been receiving and investigating complaints as well as taking steps to secure appropriate redress where human rights violations have been alleged. In the reporting year, the ZHRC, through its Northern and Southern Regional Offices, received and dealt with 482 complaints. Of the 482 cases, 438 cases were dealt with in the Northern Region Office and 44 cases were dealt with by the Southern Region Office. 6.2.1. Analysis of complaints received by mandate As already mentioned above, ZHRC has a dual mandate of protecting and promoting human rights as well as dealing with administrative justice cases that were previously dealt with by the now defunct Public Protector's Office. In the year under review, the ZHRC received 278 cases from the public. Of these, 15 (5.4%) were general cases, 162 (58.3%) were human rights cases and 101 (36.3%) were maladministration cases. From the inherited Public Protector's files, the ZHRC dealt with 204 cases. Of the 204 cases, 1 (0.4%) was a general case, 16 (7.9%) were human rights cases and 187 (91.7%) were maladministration cases. 6.2.2. Gender analysis of complaints received Of the 482 complaints received by the Commission, 107 (22.20%) were by female complainants while 342 (70.95%) were by male complainants and 33 (6.84%) were group complaints. From the abovementioned statistics, it is clear that overall, the Commission received more complaints from males than it did from females. This could be attributed to diverse factors that include inter alia, the social, cultural or economic background of the complainant. Zimbabwe Human Rights Commission Annual Report 2015 15