A/HRC/61/50 II. Normative context 9. Numerous rights relate to funeral rights, including the rights to life, 4 non-discrimination, religion or belief, peaceful assembly, association, privacy, family life, property rights, cultural rights and minority rights. Effective respect for, and protection of, funeral rights rests on the interdependence of human rights. 10. The denial of funeral rights engages all three aspects5 of freedom of religion or belief: it violates freedom of religion or belief itself, it often constitutes religion- or belief-based discrimination, and it is sometimes perpetrated in the name of religion or belief. A. Funeral rights as manifestation 11. Despite the lack of specific reference to death and honouring the deceased in the International Bill of Human Rights, it is clear that funeral rights are protected under the right to manifest religion or belief in worship, observance and practice. 12. Both the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, in article 18, include the right to have, hold and change thought, conscience and religion or belief, and to manifest it in worship, observance, practice and teaching, individually or in community with others, in public or private. 13. In its interpretation of article 18 of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, the Human Rights Committee implicitly referred to funeral rights when extrapolating manifestation, in holding that “the concept of worship extends to ritual and ceremonial acts … The observance and practice of religion or belief may include not only ceremonial acts but also such customs as … participation in rituals associated with certain stages of life”. 6 14. The Declaration on the Elimination of All Forms of Intolerance and of Discrimination Based on Religion or Belief, proclaimed by the General Assembly in 1981, outlines the broad parameters of manifestation of religion or belief. It, too, implicitly provides for funeral rights when providing, in article 6, that manifestation includes the following freedoms: (a) To worship or assemble in connection with a religion or belief …; … (c) To make, acquire and use to an adequate extent the necessary articles and materials related to the rites or customs of a religion or belief; … (g) To train, appoint, elect or designate by succession appropriate leaders called for by the requirements and standards of any religion or belief; (h) To … celebrate holidays and ceremonies in accordance with the precepts of one's religion or belief. 15. Article 18 of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights delineates the conditions under which limitations can, in exceptional circumstances, legitimately be applied to manifestation of religion or belief. It is never legitimate to restrict a persons’ right to have, adopt or change religion or belief, or to coerce someone to do so. Severe curtailment of rights due to one’s religion or belief can amount to coercion, irrespective of whether it stems from physical threats and sanctions or other policies and practices such as “restricting access to education, medical care, employment” or other rights. 7 In the present report, the Special Rapporteur observes that severe restrictions on funeral rights can amount to coercion of the living, especially when designed to compel living next of kin to convert through pressuring 4 5 6 7 GE.25-21055 and Daniel Cloney for consolidating the inputs; and Ahmed Shaheed, Thiago Alves Pinto, Başak Çalı and Michael Wiener for feedback on the draft. See A/HRC/56/56. See A/HRC/52/38. Human Rights Committee, general comment No. 22 (1993), para. 4. Ibid., para. 5. 3