Saturday, April 4 2020 11:02

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.