The Draft authored by the RA Ministry of Justice and the order of the RA Minister of Health within the framework of the fight against coronavirus are unconstitutional and illegal: Statement of the Governing Board of the CSOs Anti-Corruption Coalition of Armenia

The Governing Board of the CSOs Anti-Corruption Coalition of Armenia, studying the draft law of the Republic of Armenia “On Making Amendments to the Law of the Republic of Armenia on Public Service” (hereinafter referred to as the Draft) and the order N 65 of 20.08.2021 of the RA Minister of Health, considers that these acts are unconstitutional and illegal. The Coalition also expresses its concern over the policy of the Government of the Republic of Armenia and emphasizes that in this way the Government violates such important principles of the constitutional and democratic state as the rule of law, human dignity, the right to work and health for the following reasons.

In order to justify the draft, reference is made only to the legal regulations of Articles 85 and 86 of the RA Constitution and Article 20.1 of the Law on Ensuring Sanitary and Epidemiological Safety of the Population, ignoring other constitutional legal regulations for the realization of human rights and freedoms.

The author of the draft, the RA Ministry of Justice, also violates the principles envisaged by the three articles of the RA Constitution: General Equality before the Law (Article 28), Prohibition of Discrimination based on other social circumstances (Article 29) and the Principle of Proportionality (Article 78), as well as Article 57 of the Constitution (Freedom to Choose Employment and Labour Rights) and a number of essential provisions of the RA Labor Code. In particular, Article 5 of the Draft stipulates such discriminatory and unequal regulation that the proposed legal regulations will not apply to the President of the Republic, Member of the National Assembly, Prime Minister, community head and member of the community council of elders, Human Rights Defender, Judge of the Constitutional Court, Member of an independent state body, Member of the Autonomous Body, Member of the State Council of Statistics, Judge of the Court of Cassation, Court of Appeal and Court of First Instance, as well as the Prosecutor General. This circumstance is worrying for the Coalition, as in fact the above-mentioned high-ranking officials are granted a privileged status. Therefore, we believe that this regulation violates the principle of non-discrimination provided by the Constitution and the Labor Code.

Referring to the constitutional principle of proportionality, it should be noted that the state is allowed to impose restrictions on human rights and freedoms to the extent that they are appropriate and necessary for the exercise of other constitutional rights. Meanwhile, this draft, on the contrary, grossly violates human rights and freedoms in inappropriate, unreasonable, unnecessary ways, in a discriminatory manner, interferes with the exercise of constitutional human rights of a person. It also contradicts Article 25 of the Law on Medical Assistance and Service to the Population, according to which everyone has the right to refuse medical intervention in writing or to request its termination.

In addition to the mentioned Draft, the Coalition also considers illegal the order No. 65-N of the Minister of Health of the Republic of Armenia dated 20.08.2021, on making changes and additions in the orders of the Minister of Health of the Republic of Armenia No. 17-N of 4 August, 2020 and No. 24-N of 18 September, 2020. This draft also imposes an illegal obligation on citizens to undergo a PCR test every 14 days if they do not have a complete vaccination, and if the test results are not submitted, this illegal order creates grounds for dismissal, which is also a violation of constitutional human rights.

In addition, the adoption of the Draft will lead to a sharp deterioration of the financial situation of most of the civil servants of the Republic of Armenia, as well as has already led to corruption, as a result of which criminal cases have been initiated for issuing fake vaccination passports.

Based on the above said, we call:

1. To withdraw the anti-constitutional and illegal Draft.
2. To declare invalid the order N 65-N of 20.08.2021 of the RA Minister of Health, since it contradicts the normative legal act with higher legal force, the Constitution and the laws of the Republic of Armenia
3. Vaccination against coronavirus should be carried out on a voluntary basis, giving priority to the realization of human rights and freedoms.
4. Before adopting restrictions or measures for the prevention of coronavirus, carry out expert examination of draft legal acts, avoiding the adoption of unconstitutional and illegal legal acts.

Governing Board of the CSOs Anti-Corruption Coalition of Armenia

“09” September, 2021