After the second try and in the second and final reading, the Parliament of Armenia today approved the package of bills on making supplements to the Law on the Legal Regime of State of Emergency and related laws that had been proposed by the government. Moreover, the deputies of the ruling My Step Alliance were the only ones who supported the legislative initiative.

The deputies of the Bright Armenia and Prosperous Armenia political parties had boycotted the vote.

The amendments to the laws envisage that, during the regime of state of emergency, the relevant authorities will have access to collection of public data in the electronic network. The government will have the opportunity to track citizens, their movement, Internet connection and contacts, the phone numbers linked to them, the readdressing of the particular phone number, as well as the phone calls, their duration, but, based on the assurances of the Ministry of Justice, not the content of those phone conversations. The changes of personal data of citizens and the possibility of collecting the personal data will only apply to the period of the regime of state of emergency due to the coronavirus pandemic. The data collected during the regime of state of emergency, including personal data, must be eliminated within a month after the end of the regime. Use of data (obtained in this way) for other purposes shall be punished under Articles 144, 145 and 146 of the Criminal Code (illegal collection and publication of personal data, divulging medical secrets, illegal publication of personal correspondence).

If a citizen refuses to download the app, other measures for isolation will be envisaged in another place or apartment, and if the citizen doesn’t have a smartphone, the State might provide one.