that closed courts are held only when the victim is a child and the offence the accused
has been charged with is for instance rape; and this is to protect the dignity of the child.
He further argued that the fact that the chambers are regarded as courtrooms when the
doors are wide open is the "Court's practice and we interpret this widely".
222.
The
Court
notes that the Charter
is silent on the principle
of publicity of court
decisions in relation to the right to a fair trial under its Article 7. In contrast, Article 14(1)
of the Covenant provides in part that "... any Judgment 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.”
223. The Court notes that, in the instant case, the Parties agree that the judgment should
have been delivered in open court, and the fact that, in this case, the judgment of the trial
court was pronounced
in the chamber of a magistrate. The only issue in contention is
whether a hearing held in the chamber of a judge,
can
be
regarded
as
open
court,
and
if therefore
circumstances can be deemed to have been
224.
which is entirely open to the public,
the judgment
delivered
in such
pronounced in public.
In the opinion of the Court, the question as to whether the judgment was delivered
in public should be determined with some flexibility and not too formally.
As declared by
the European Court of Human Rights in the matter of Lorenzetti v. Italy, “the requirement
whereby
a judgment
flexibility2®.
must
be
rendered
in public was
interpreted with
a measure
of
In the same matter, the Court recalled that “it is necessary to determine in
each case in light of the peculiar nature of the relevant procedure and depending on the
purport and objective of Article 6 (1), the form of publicity to be given to a judgment as
provided under the domestic law ofa particular State.?”
publicise judgments
should
not necessarily take the form of oral pronouncement,
26 Judgment of 10 April 2012, para 37.
27 Ibidem.
It holds that “the requirement to
See also the jurisprudence cited.
58
and
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