E/CN.4/1988/45 page 14 religious instruction of any kind in schools and other public teaching institutions. Consequently, any discrimination against children on the grounds of their attitude towards religion or their belief is also probibited. School curricula are designed to give children an internationalist education in a spirit of peace, friendship and mutual respect. If the parents or guardian so desire, a child may receive religious instruction within the family and, when he has attained his majority, he may enter an ecclesiastical teaching institution of his faith. Thus, in matters of education, the child's interests come first; any action which may impair the health or physical, intellectual and moral development of the child is prohibited and is punishable. Soviet citizens enjoy genuine freedom of conscience, which may be restricted only by the constitutional provision stating that 'the exercise by citizens of their rights and freedoms must not be prejudicial to the interests of society and the State or to the rights-of other citizens' (article 39) and goes together with the duties which every citizen must fulfil. Religious beliefs are not a matter for criminal or court action in the Soviet Union. Any premeditated infringement of the laws on the separation of the Church is subject to criminal and administrative penalties (articles 142 and 227 of the Criminal Code of the RSFSR) and includes collecting taxes unlawfully, disturbing public order on the pretext of committing fraudulent acts for the purpose of encouraging religious superstitions and impairing the health, integrity and rights of citizens. Any official who infringes the rights of believers is also liable to criminal penalties under article 142. In the case of persons sentenced for acts against the Soviet State (article 70 of the Criminal Code of the RSFSR), for the systematic dissemination of slanderous allegations denigrating the political and social system (article 190.1) or for plundering, speculation, engaging in a prohibited trade, hooliganism and other violations of the Criminal Code, neither their religious beliefs nor, moreover, atheism, as the case may be, may be claimed as grounds for exemption from liability. Believers who are liable to a custodial sentence for having committed punishable acts are also entitled to practise any religion and perform religious rites in places of detention, provided that the rules in force are respected. Allegations that believers who are serving a sentence are held in solitary confinement because of their beliefs are unfounded. The type of detention under which a convicted person is held may be changed only in the event of flagrant and repeated violations of the established rules of conduct in rehabilitation centres. The allegations that members of religious groups in the Soviet Union are placed in psychiatric hospitals are also unfounded. Under Soviet legislation, internment in a psychiatric hospital for compulsory treatment may be ordered only by a court against an individual who has committed a socially dangerous act and is recognized by a competent psychiatric board as being irresponsible because of mental illness. Like other citizens serving a custodial sentence, believers are entitled to apply for a judicial pardon. Such applications are usually accepted. In 1987, the Soviet State acted on humanitarian grounds to pardon 43 religious