The Draft law on the “Protection of Personal Data” has been put into circulation at the National Assembly. This legal document brought up certain concerns among advocates.
Advocate Melanya Arustamyan states that currently the law on Personal data is in force, which already limits the rights of advocates. “It makes the acquisition of certain data inaccessible. The article 18 of the law on advocacy envisages that we can get certain data for our constituents. Recently many limitations have been applied: we do not get data from the civil registration authorities, as the Ministry of Justice has restricted it. Thus, we cannot get data on third persons, be that person the husband, wife or a relative of someone. This makes it very difficult to gather evidence and provide legal aid”, said the advocate.
Mrs Arustamyan states that these are not the only hardships. There are problems also in the process of providing certificates about one`s convictions. “While requesting an act of the public trial, act on convictions is not provided, while it is a public data, it exists on the Datalex platform. Besides, no data is also provided on the people in persecution”.
Cocncluding all of this, Mrs Arustamyan states that the existing laws have already put restrictions on the acquisition of information. “With the new draft law the personal data can be provided only to certain authorities and institutions. In the new law these bodies do not include advocates”. “In this case advocates will have to do a more extensive work, and naturally their remuneration should be higher. And who suffers of this – common citizens”, said the lawyer.
Iravaban.net has referred to this draft law. You can find more details in the video-report of the Series “Legal Week”.
