Constitution_Of_Botswana.TXT
omission constituting the contempt is not defined in a written law and the penalty
therefor is not so prescribed.
(9) Any court or other adjudicating authority prescribed by law for the
determination of the existence or extent of any civil right or obligation shall be
established or recognized 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 adjudicating authority, the case shall be given a fair hearing within
a reasonable time.
(10) Except with the agreement of all the parties thereto, all proceedings
of every court and proceedings for the determination of the existence or extent of
any civil right or obligation before any other adjudicating authority, including the
announcement of the decision of the court or other authority, shall be held in
public.
(11) Nothing in subsection (10) shall prevent the court or other
adjudicating authority from excluding from the proceedings persons other than the
parties thereto and their legal representatives to such extent as the court or other
authority(a)
may consider necessary or expedient in circumstances where publicity
would prejudice the interests of justice or in interlocutory proceedings; or
(b)
may be empowered by law to do so in the interests of defence, public
safety, public order, public morality, the welfare of persons under the age of 18
years or the protection of the private lives of persons concerned in the
proceedings.
(12) Nothing contained in or done under the authority of any law shall be
held to be inconsistent with or in contravention of(a)
subsection (2)(a) of this section to the extent that the law in
question imposes upon any person charged with a criminal offence the burden of
proving particular facts;
(b)
subsection (2)(d) or (2)(e) of this section to the extent that the
law in question prohibits legal representation before a subordinate court in
proceedings for an offence under customary law (being proceedings against any person
who, under that law, is subject to that law);
(c)
subsection (2)(c) of this section to the extent that the law in
question imposes reasonable conditions that must be satisfied if witnesses called to
testify on behalf of an accused person are to be paid their expenses out of public
funds;
(d)
subsection (5) of this section to the extent that the law in
question authorizes a court to try a member of a disciplined force for a criminal
offence notwithstanding any trial and conviction or acquittal of that member under
the disciplinary law of that force, so, however, that any court so trying such a
member and convicting him or her shall in sentencing him or her to any punishment
take into account any punishment awarded him or her under that disciplinary law;
(e)
subsection (8) of this section to the extent that the law in
question authorizes a court to convict a person of a criminal offence under any
customary law to which, by virtue of that law, such person is subject.
(13) In the case of any person who is held in lawful detention, the
provisions of subsection (1), subsection (2)(d) and (e) and subsection (3) of this
section shall not apply in relation to his or her trial for a criminal offence under
the law regulating the discipline of persons held in such detention.
(14) In this section "criminal offence" means a criminal offence under the
law in force in Botswana.
[Ch0000s11] 11. Protection of freedom of conscience
(1) Except with his or her own consent, no person shall be hindered in the
enjoyment of his or her freedom of conscience, and for the purposes of this section
the said freedom includes freedom of thought and of religion, freedom to change his
or her religion or belief, and freedom, either alone or in community with others,
and both in public and in private, to manifest and propagate his or her religion or
belief in worship, teaching, practice and observance.
(2) Every religious community shall be entitled, at its own expense, to
establish and maintain places of education and to manage any place of education
which it wholly maintains; and no such community shall be prevented from providing
religious instruction for persons of that community in the course of any education
provided at any place of education which it wholly maintains or in the course of any
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