A/HRC/9/7 page 10 27. Under subsection 4 of the Constitution, no person shall be compelled to take any oath in a manner that is contrary to his or her religion or belief. The Constitution specifies that the enjoyment of human rights and fundamental freedoms, which include freedom of conscience, shall be exercised without discrimination by reason of race, place of origin, political opinion, colour, creed or sex, and subject to respect for the rights and freedoms of others and for the public interest. 28. Several provisions of the criminal code cited protect freedom of conscience. For example, section 183 makes it a criminal offence to interfere with the freedom of conscience, section 185 outlaws “outrage on religious worship”, and sections 206 and 282 prohibit “outrage against public and religious morality” and the “stirring up racial hatred”, respectively. Turkey [Original: English] 29. The Government of Turkey referred to several provisions of the penal code that criminalize statements or actions that are deemed to attack or impugn individual honour, dignity or prestige. Article (1) of the penal code provides that “any person who attributes an act, or fact, to a person in a manner that may impugn that person’s honour, dignity or prestige, or attacks someone’s honour, dignity or prestige by swearing, shall be sentenced to a penalty of imprisonment for a term of three months to two years or a judicial fine”. The penalty is increased when such statements and actions involve religion. In this regard, the penal code specifies that “where the subject matter is deemed sacred to the religion the person belongs to, the penalty to be imposed shall not be less than one year; where the insult is committed in public, the penalty to be imposed shall be increased by one sixth; and where an insult is made which arises from the duties of public officials who are working as a committee, the offence shall be deemed to have been committed against all members of that committee. In these circumstances, the provisions of the article concerning successive offences shall be applied”. 30. Article 153 of the penal code stipulates in part that “any person who damages buildings, associated buildings (or structures upon such) of a place of worship or the removable property therein, or a structure with the purpose of protecting a cemetery by destroying, damaging or breaking such, shall be sentenced to a penalty of imprisonment for a term of one to four years”. The same article provides that “any person who soils the places or structures listed in the first section shall be sentenced to a penalty of imprisonment for a term of three months to one year, or a judicial fine”, and “where the offences in sections 1 and 2 are committed with the aim of defaming a related religious group, the penalty shall be increased by one third”. 31. Article 216 specifies that “a person who publicly provokes hatred or hostility in one section of the public against another section which has a different characteristic based on social class, race, religion, sect or regional difference, which creates a clear and imminent danger to public security shall be sentenced to a penalty of imprisonment for a term of one to three years”. Moreover, “a person who publicly degrades a section of the public on grounds of social class, race, religion, sect, gender or regional differences shall be sentenced to a penalty of imprisonment for a term of six months to one year”; furthermore, “a person who publicly degrades the religious values of a section of the public shall be sentenced to a penalty of imprisonment for a term of six months to one year, where the act is capable of disturbing public peace”.