The decision of the Constitutional Court under the claim filed by opposition deputies of the National Assembly for disputing the constitutionality of certain provisions of the order of the Minister of Health of Armenia on mandatory vaccinations and testing has been posted on the website of the Constitutional Court.

The Constitutional Court had left in effect the provision of the minister’s order according to which employers need to demand from employees a coronavirus vaccination certificate or a negative PCR test result (twice a month) and/or medical statement of information stating that vaccination is contraindicated for the employee. At the same time, the Constitutional Court declared the word-combination ‘at his or her expense’ in the sentence ‘the employee gets the PCR test at his or her expense’ as contradicting particular articles of the Constitution and invalid, taking into consideration the fact that establishment of the scope of employees with the duty to pay for the PCR test service is beyond the scope of powers prescribed for the health minister by law.

Representative of the plaintiff under the case, deputy of the opposition “Armenia” Faction of the National Assembly Aram Vardevanyan wrote the following on his Facebook page, touching upon the decision of the Constitutional Court:

“The decision of the Constitutional Court is promulgated. The Minister of Health or any government official is obliged to perceive the ILLEGAL and UNCONSTITUTIONAL line of conduct against Armenians and the consequences need to be inevitable:

(1) the Constitutional Court clearly says that the burden of expenses couldn’t be placed on employees under the order, but as to whom the burden should be placed on, this is not the function of the Constitutional Court, and this is natural.

(2) the order has other problematic provisions that have been thoroughly touched upon.

(3) the Constitutional Court recorded that the State may cover the expenses for PCR tests and it may not cover the expenses, but the situation IMPLIES “public support, with the agenda of social solidarity”…

(4) the Constitutional Court, rightly so, also attached importance to the vaccination policy and, to a certain extent, indicated the existing shortcomings of the policy in Armenia.”