Beware of your psychologist, he is a potential witness

As you know, psychology is an ancient science that has experienced great progress over time. Today, the world already speaks the language of psychology, which is aimed at the well-being of a person acquires.

The Institute of Psychological Support in Armenia, although it is young, has developed a demand for it over the years, especially recently. The number of people who use the services of a psychologist is large, and this is encouraging, because it is preferable to talk about sensitive, narrow personal issues. with a professional who has a commitment to sensitivity.

Yes, such progress is good, but it has its own risks, which a person does not know about from his psychologist, and there is a high probability that the psychologist himself does not know about it.

Thus.

We know that when an alleged crime is committed, the victim and the accused are involved in the case. In addition to them, the prosecuting authority also calls those who may be aware of the circumstances to some extent are the witnesses in the criminal case.

The RA Criminal Procedure Code has defined the list of persons who cannot be questioned as witnesses or present objects, documents or other materials. The list includes statuses that are not subject to involvement as witnesses — to the institution of becoming a confessor cannot be involved as a witness in a criminal case.

The legislator was certainly able to balance the positive obligations of competent authorities to prevent crime and protect the privacy of personal and family life at the declaratory level. to share the secret and receive forgiveness for their sins, would be summoned to the prosecuting authority and would mercilessly tell what was revealed to them It would, at the very least, cause an irreparable split in the church-believer relationship.

It must be admitted that the mentioned legal regulation is an important guarantee. However, the legislator has left out the process of guaranteeing the reliability of the relationship between the psychologist and the visitor. The visitor, as a subject of personal data, shares his personal and family secrets with the psychologist. him and knows that this information will not be transferred to any third party. data he promised to keep and not share.

The RA Law «On Protection of Personal Data» allows the personal data processor to transfer personal data to third parties without the consent of the subject of personal data or to provide access to the data, if this is provided for by law and has a sufficient level of protection.

It is not prohibited by the RA Criminal Procedure Code, it means that a psychologist is allowed to be involved as a witness in a criminal case , which will give a psychologist a legal guarantee to tell about a special category of personal data or other events that happened to him, because he is a psychologist and promised to keep what he knows confidential the psychologist cannot hide what he knows, because visits to the psychologist are not recorded.

The state should look at this problem because it directly harms the idea of ​​personal data protection, as a consequence it also creates a conflicting practice of using a psychologist as an «informant», overcoming which, however, does not deny the state’s obligation to protect and restore social justice.

Funded by the Federal Office of Foreign Affairs.

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