E/CN.4/1992/52 page 134 8. In a recent case the High Court of Justice again affirmed the vital importance of freedom of speech and at the same time acknowledged that such freedom could be limited when it constitutes a 'near certainty of real harm to the social order'. The Court stated: 'There was no need, in Israel, with the tragic and traumatic background of our people, to emphasize the utterly destructive influence of the incitement of racial hatred. No other form of expression can so effectively create violence, stir the lowest and most vile instincts in human beings and lead to the degradation of sections of the population against whom the propaganda is directed' (H.C.J. 399/85 41 PD (III) 255). 9. On 3 January 1979, the State of Israel ratified the International Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination. Article 5 of the Convention guarantees the 'right to freedom of thought, conscience and religion'.1' Luxembourg "No." Panama "By Constitutional mandate, no steps have been taken in our country against the expression of extremist or fanatical opinions which may lead to religious intransigence or intolerance." Portugal See under (f). Rwanda "Apart from the constitutional guarantees mentioned above, other measures are embodied in the Criminal Code, in the chapter dealing with slander and insult, which contains provisions punishing religious intolerance as defined in article 2 of the Declaration on the Elimination of All Forms of Intolerance and of Discrimination Based on Religion or Belief. Article 393 Anyone who, through defamation or public insult, expresses aversion or hatred towards a group of persons belonging by origin to a particular race or religion or who commits an act liable to provoke such aversion or hatred shall be punished by imprisonment for from one month to one year and a fine not exceeding 5,000 francs, or by one of these penalties alone. The following shall also be liable to the same penalties or to one of them alone: 1. Any holder of public authority or citizen responsible for a public service ministry who because of a person's origins or the fact that he does or does not belong to a particular ethnic group, region, nation, race or religion knowingly denies him a right to which he is entitled;