In 2022, the restrictive measures taken to control the spread of the COVID-19 pandemic were lifted. The lifting of these measures is directly reflected in the volume of cases the Mechanism was asked to investigate in the previous year. Indeed, following the de-escalation of the COVID-19 pandemic and the gradual lifting of the relevant restrictive measures, the number of cases involving the security forces that were referred to the Mechanism for investigation returned to pre-pandemic levels, i.e. those of year 2019, as the security forces had been assigned the task of monitoring compliance with these measures and this resulted in a number of complaints of violence and other forms of police abuse in the two previous years. It is worth noting that, compared to prepandemic data, the number of citizen complaints filed to EMIDIPA increased nearly by 50% - which solidly demonstrates the high level of public confidence in the Mechanism and in its safeguarding functions and the Mechanism’s everincreasing recognition by the general public.