CIVIL & FOLITICAL COVENANT (Cont'd)
ECONOMIC & SOCIAL COVENANT (Cont'd)
BOLLS CUBSTITUTION (cont'd)
Article 14
1. All persons shall be equal before the courts and tribunals. In the determination of any criminal charge against him, or of his rights and obligations in a suit at law, everyone shall be entitled to a fair and public hearing by a competent, independent and impartial tribunal established by law. The Press and the public may be excluded from all or part of a trial for reasons of morals, public order (ordie public) or national security in a democratic society, or when the interest of the private lives of the parties so requires, or to the extent strictly necessary in the opinion of the court in special circumstances where publicity would prejudice the interests of justice; but any judgement rendered in a criminal case or in a suit at law shall be made public except where the interest of juvenile persons otherwise requires or the proceedings concern matrimonial disputes or the guardianship of children.
2. Everyone charged with a criminal offence shall have the right to be presumed innocent until proved guilty according to law.
3. In the determination of any criminal charge against him, everyone shall be entitled to the following minimum guarantees, in full equality: (a) To be informed promptly and in detail in a language which he understands of the nature and cause of the charge against him;
(b) To have adequate time and facilities for the preparation of his defence and to communicate with counsel of his own choosing;
(c) To be tried without undue delay;
(d) To be tried in his presence, and to defend himself in person or through legal assistance of his own choosing; to be informed, if he does not have legal assistance, of this right; and to have legal assistance assigned to him, in any case where the interests of justice so require. and withoun paktsent to him in any such case if he does not have sufficient meatís to pay fe. it;
de To examine, or have exquined, die witnesses againu bini and to obtain the attendata e and ex.manation of witness on his behalf under the same conditems as witnesses against him:
To have the free assistance of an interpreter ji he cannot under- stand or speak the language used in cout:
(g) Not to be compelled to testify against himeli or to confess guilt. 4. In the case of javcaile persons, the procedure shall be such as «ill take account of their age and the desirability of promotin, üwir veltabilit ution. 5. Everyone convicted of a crane shall have the right to his conviction and sentence being reviewed by a higher tribund according to law,
6. When a person has by a final decision been convicted of a criminal offence and when subsequently his conviction has been reversed or he has been pardoned on the ground dat a new or newly diwovered fan shows conclusively that there has been a miscarriage of justice, the person who has suffered prislument as a result of such conviction shall be compensated according to law, unless it is proved that the non-disclosure of the unknown fact in time is wholly or partly attributable to him. 7. No one shall be liable in he tried or punished again for an offence for which he has already been finally convicted or acquitted in accordance with the law and penal procedure of each country,
(The U.K. reservation does not apply to Hong Kong)
Article 15
J. No one shall be held guilty of any criminal oflence on account of any act or omission which did not constitute a criminal offence. under na tional or international law, at the time when it was committed. Nor shall a heavier penalty be imposed than the one that was applicable at the time when the criminal offene was commnitte.!. H, subsequent to the commission of the offence, provision is made by law for the imposition of a lighter penalty, the offender shall benefit thereby
2. Nothing in this article shall prejudice the trial and pudiidiraent of any person for any act or omission which, at the time when it was coin- mitted, was criminal according œ the general principles of law recognized by the community & nations,
Protection
of law.
6.-(1) All persons are equal before the law and are entitled without any discrimination to the equal protection of the law.
(2) If any person is charged with a criminal offence, then, unless the charge is withdrawn, the case shall be afforded a fair hearing within a reasonable time by an independent and impartial court established by law.
(3) Every person who is charged with a criminal offence—
(a) shall be presumed to be innocent until he is proved or has
pleaded guilty;
(b) shall be informed as soon as reasonably practicable, in a lan- guage that he understands, of the nature and particulars of the offence charged;
(c) shall be given adequate time and facilities for the preparation of
his defence:
(d) shall be permitted to defend himself before the court in person or, at his own expense. by a legal practitioner of his own choice; (e) shall be afforded facilities to examine in person or by his legal representative the witnesses called by the prosecution before the court, and to obtain the attendance and carry out the examination of witnesses to testify on his behalf before the court on the same conditions as those applying to witnesses called by the prosecu tion; and
shall be permitted to have without payment the assistance of an interpreter if he cannot understand the language used at the trial, and except with his own consent the trial shall not take place in his absence unless he so conducts himself as to render the continuance of the proceedings in his presence impracticable and the court has ordered him to be removed and the trial to proceed in his absence:
Provided that the trial may take place in his absence in any case in which it is so provided by a law under which he is entitled to adequate notice of the charge and the date, time and place of the trial and to a reasonable opportunity of appearing before the court.
(4) A person shall not be held to be guilty of a criminal offence on account of any act or omission that did not, at the time it took place, constitute such an offence, and no penalty shall be imposed for ny criminal offence that is severer in degree or description than the max- imum penalty that might have been imposed for that offence at the time when it was committed.
(5) A person who shows that he has been tried by a competent court for a criminal offence and either convicted or acquitted shall not again be tried for that offence or for any other criminal offence of which he could have been convicted at the trial for that offence, save upon the order of e superior court in the course of appeal or review proceedings relating to the conviction or acquittal.
(6) A person who is tried for a criminal offence shall not be compelled
to give evidence at the trial.
(7) Any court or other authority prescribed by law for the determina- tion of the existence or extent of any civil right or obligation shall be established by law and shall be independent and impartial; and where proceedings for such a determination are instituted by any person before such a court or other authority, the case shall be given a fair hearing within a reasonable time.
(8) Except with the agreement of all the parties thereto, all proceed- ings of every court and proceedings for the determination of the existence or extent of any civil right or obligation before any other authority, including the announcement of the decision of the court or other author. ity, shall be held in public.
(9) Nothing in subsection (8) of this section shall prevent the court or other adjudicating authority from excluding from the proceedings per- sons other than the parties thereto and the legal practitioners represent- ing thein to such extent as the court or other authority-
(a) may by law be empowered to do and may consider necessary or expedient in circumstances where publicity would prejudice the interests of justice or in interlocutory proceedings or in the inter- ests of public morality, the welfare of persons under the age of eighteen years or the protection of the private lives of persons concerned in the proceedings; or
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