ArmInfo. The amendments to the laws on the legal regime of emergency and on electronic communications adopted by the National Assembly of Armenia restrict the right to privacy and provide the country's authorities with access to confidential medical information regarding people infected with coronavirus. This is stated in a statement by the human rights organization Human Rights Watch.
While recognizing the permissibility of restricting privacy rights to contain a pandemic, the organization, at the same time, believes that the Armenian government should ensure that these restrictions are legal, necessary and proportionate. The executive body, according to human rights defenders, should consider introducing strict restrictions on the collection of this data, the purposes for which it will be used, as well as in relation to the people to whom it will be available. In addition, people should be aware if their data is collected, the organization notes. “If the state of emergency in the country persists for a long period, the government should regularly check whether the records that are no longer relevant should be destroyed,” the statement said. It should be noted that on March 31, the Armenian parliament in the second and final reading adopted amendments to two laws - “On the legal regime of the state of emergency” and “On electronic communication”. RA Minister of Justice RustamBadasyan from the rostrum of the National Assembly, presenting the rationale for the adoption of the amendments, repeated the previously voiced theses on the submitted documents. In particular, he noted that in a state of emergency it is proposed to track the movements of citizens, including using smartphones. The head of the Ministry of Justice emphasized that this intervention will be limited by the time of the emergency, and the data will be transmitted only to the responsible authorities. For illegal disclosure of personal information of citizens, liability is provided, up to criminal. It is proposed to use electronic programs in order to establish the location of the subscriber and data on the numbers with which he spoke (but not the content of telephone conversations). It is proposed to collect data on the health status of subscribers, including data constituting a medical secret. “This data will be used only to understand whether a person complies with the regime of isolation and self-isolation. For this, only electronic applications authorized by the state will be used,” Badasyan added. These restrictions, according to the minister, relate exclusively to the state of emergency declared during the pandemic, and after its completion there will be no restrictions.
It should be noted that human rights organizations of the republic criticized the above amendments, noting that this would inflict a serious blow on human rights in the country. The amendments were not supported by the opposition parliamentary forces, which expressed the belief that the virus could be fought without infringement of human rights.