ArmInfo.The draft laws "On the legal regime of emergency" and "On electronic communications" proposed by the government are not commensurate with the goal of preventing the spread of coronavirus. The first Ombudsman of Armenia, the chairwoman of the organization "Against Legal Abuse", human rights activist Larisa Alaverdyan stated this in an interview with ArmInfo correspondent.
''These are very severe restrictions. International law stipulates that in such cases severe restrictive measures must be clearly justified, and these restrictions should not go beyond the borders of a democratic state. The norms and principles of international human rights law highlight those areas where the state cannot enter, in particular: personal life, family life, correspondence, negotiations and movements>, the human rights activist said.
Alaverdyan emphasized that from her point of view this method is absolutely not effective in combating the spread of coronavirus infection. "It's no coincidence that no laws have been adopted in any European country," the first Ombudsman of Armenia noted.
The first Ombudsman of Armenia stated that such measures could become a ground for abuse by the authorities and be used to track political opponents. "This is a far-reaching threat, it is a much more serious threat than the spread of coronavirus infection," she said. Indeed, in the conditions of the division of society into blacks and whites, revolutionaries and counter-revolutionaries, such a law can become an instrument of political persecution, "Alaverdyan noted.