1 / 6

On March 31 at 17:00, the RA National Assembly convened an extraordinary sitting of the National Assembly pursuant to Article 100 of the Constitution of the Republic of Armenia and Article 41 of the Constitutional Law the Rules of Procedure of the National Assembly by the initiator’s established agenda.

In accordance with the decision adopted by the parliament, the debate of the legislative initiatives in the second reading will be held after passing them in the first reading within twenty-four hours.

One of the items included in the draft law of the agenda of the extraordinary sitting was the legislative package on Making Addenda to the Law on Legal Regime of the State of Emergency and on Making Addendum to the Law on Electronic Communication authored by the government, which was introduced to debate for passing in the first reading. Let us note that the abovementioned legislative package was debated in the second reading and completely passing at the extraordinary sitting of the National Assembly held in the morning of March 31, but it was not passed.

In relation to this, the Head of the RA NA My Step Faction Lilit Makunts has delivered a speech, clarifying that 10 members of the Faction are in Artsakh Republic with Observation Mission. Some deputies did not take part in the morning sitting because of illness and being in risk groups.

The RA Minister of Justice Rustam Badasyan has noted that the goal of the legislative package on Making Addenda to the Law on Legal Regime of the State of Emergency and on Making Addendum to the Law on Electronic Communication is to find the location of the people who had contact exclusively with the coronavirus bearer and discovering them, using the possibilities of the technical means, particularly the smart phones.

As a result of voting the package was passed in the first reading by voting with 69 votes for it.

As the RA Deputy Minister of Health Anahit Avanesyan presented, the draft law on Making Addenda to the Law on Medical Aid and Service of the Population was debated in the second reading. It was proposed to envisage exception out of the cases of making compulsory autopsy in case of death because of coronavirus disease (COVID-19), preventing the possible viral dissemination as a result of autopsy, stemming from the priority of ensuring the life security of the population.

The draft law was passed in the second reading and completely. 69 MPs voted for it.

Let us note that the deputies of the RA NA Bright Armenia and the Prosperous Armenia factions did not take part in the NA extraordinary sitting.

At the end of the day the deputies of the NA My Step Faction debated in the second reading the legislative package on Making Addenda to the Law on Legal Regime of the State of Emergency and on Making Addendum to the Law on Electronic Communication.

The RA Minister of Justice Rustam Badasyan informed the MPs that some technical amendments had been made from the first to the second reading.

The member of the NA Standing Committee on State and Legal Affairs Nazeli Baghdasaryan voiced on the endorsement of the Committee.

In their speeches the MPs emphasized the adoption of the initiative and giving one more opportunity to the Commandant’s Office to effectively fight against the coronavirus.

The NA Speaker Ararat Mirzoyan gave an extraordinary speech.

The Head of the Parliament addressed the RA citizens to make understandable the actions of the Government and the political majority. He has recorded that Armenia and the world are not the same as they were one and a half month ago, the goals, the work style and the methodology are also not the same.

“Dear citizens, once again I call on you to soberly analyse the situation and follow all the rules which propose the Government and the Commandant’s Office,” the Head of the Parliament said.

In his final speech Rustam Badasyan touched upon the concerns and some speculations on the draft law.

The RA Deputy Prime Minister Tigran Avinyan delivered an extraordinary speech. According to the Deputy Prime Minister, the proposing solutions are aimed at making more effective the coronavirus disease prevention and isolation works. He underlined that the location finding data on persons would give an opportunity to find the place of the persons who had contacted the virus bearer. The Deputy Prime Minister has assured that the system is fully automated, there is no human intervention; there is a programme which will find the circle of possible contact.

“Don’t our compatriots have that right to be informed that they have had contact with the coronavirus bearer a day ago, an hour or a minute ago? I am sure they have that right,” Tigran Avinyan underscored.

Evaluating the problem of public health the RA Deputy Prime Minister quoted that succeeded experience of the Asian countries, which effectively applied the location finding and isolation tools. According to him, the applications of all restrictions won’t give any result, if it is not possible to prevent the virus chains and isolate the persons.

“Our goal is to prevent with technological tools as much as possible the dissemination of the virus and reduce the move and other restrictions in parallel with time. This is our problem.” Tigran Avinyan has stressed, adding that our goal is to reduce the intensiveness of the virus dissemination.

The legislative package was passed by the parliament with 71 for votes.

Covering the agenda the National Assembly ended the work of the extraordinary sitting.