Complaints with the Human Rights Commission have halved since 1999, according to the latest figures.

Government tabled the Human Rights Commission's (HRC) annual reports for the years 2000 and 2001.

They show that complaints peaked at 989 in 1998, during the five year period from 1997 until 2001, but went steadily down since.

In 2001 just 491 people lodged complaints as compared to 645 in 2000, 932 in 1999 and 849 in 1997.

The number of actual investigations followed a similar pattern and dropped dramatically over the same period.

In 1999, the Commission investigated 172 complaints, up from 120 in 1997 and 142 in 1998. But investigations fell thereafter to 56 in 2000 and 41 in 2001 - a result which could have been affected by strains in the office that year which saw the controversial departure of the Commission's executive officer Neville Darrell.

The HRC was established to administer the Human Rights Act 1981 which prohibits discrimination on a number of grounds including gender, race, national origin, pregnancy and disability.

By far the greatest number of investigations (115) over the five year period were conducted in respect of complaints of discrimination on the grounds of pregnancy.

Sexual harassment investigations came next at 76, followed closely by race (67) and gender discrimination investigations (64).