A/HRC/61/50 practices to bury their dead within an hour’s distance from the city limits where the death has occurred, and requiring families to travel long distances to visit graves. In May 2025, a 56-year-old Baha’i woman with intellectual disabilities from Kerman was forced to be buried 120 km away in Rafsanjan, at exorbitant cost to her family, after the Kerman Baha’i cemetery, used for 80 years, was abruptly closed by the municipality in 2018 without notice. 73 61. Other instances of distant burials are reported in India, where permission for burials is regularly denied by local authorities. Between 2021 and mid-2025, at least 120 Christian families in India were reportedly denied the right to bury their dead according to their faith. Families had to transport bodies long distances, keep them unburied for days or submit them to reconversion rituals.74 In one case, an elderly Christian man’s funeral was blocked and he had to be buried 25 km away.75 62. In Nepal, local administrative practices and decisions on land use have created zoning barriers that prevent minority communities from securing burial land. Christians, Muslims, Kirat and Mustoo are reportedly blocked from using public cemeteries, forcibly taxed for owning their own burial sites and face violence and administrative exclusion. The severe shortage of burial sites has reportedly forced Christians to cremate their dead, hold secret funerals or travel long distances (sometimes to India) at great expense to bury their loved ones at night to avoid harassment and community backlash. The authorities have provided graveyards only in a few areas, such as Biratnagar and Butwal, but local opposition blocks access to burial lands in many other places, with incidents of buried bodies being exhumed and desecrated.76 That is compounded by the interplay with caste discrimination, especially for Dalits. Caste segregation persists in death, with separate cremation grounds for Dalits and non-Dalits reported nationwide.77 63. Voodoo is predominant in Haitian culture and deems that the deceased becomes a spiritual ancestor or lwa, symbolizing continuity between generations. Voodoo practices often coexist with Catholic and Protestant influences. Despite the official recognition of Voodoo as a religion in 2003, it remains marginalized and stigmatized, particularly regarding access to appropriate public burial spaces. That limits the ability of families to fully honour their religious traditions. The lack of clear regulations governing community funeral rights reportedly leads to indirect discrimination.78 64. In Egypt, Bahaʼis have access to only one overcrowded cemetery in Cairo and religious authorities, such as Al-Azhar, have blocked cemetery allocations to them through their fatwas, denying Bahaʼis the right to bury their dead in accordance with their faith, as has been raised79 by Special Rapporteurs and the Human Rights Committee. 80 C. Desecration and vandalism 65. Equal protection against desecration of graves and religious symbols used in all burial grounds is incontrovertibly guaranteed,81 yet violations plague humanity the world over. As the mandate holder has argued, disrespect for funeral rights and destruction of cemeteries constitutes an insidious form of coercion. Desecration of cemeteries, mausoleums and burial grounds constitutes discrimination and causes such mental distress that it may reach the threshold of ill-treatment.82 66. In the Syrian Arab Republic, the Yezidi cemetery in the village of Basofan near Afrin was vandalized on 16 December 2022, coinciding with the Yazidi feast of Ezi. Similar 73 74 75 76 77 78 79 80 81 82 GE.25-21055 Submission from Baha’i International Community on the Islamic Republic of Iran. Submission from Evangelical Fellowship of India and the World Evangelical Alliance. Submission from Open Doors International; and Supreme Court of India, Ramesh Baghel v. State of Chhattisgarh & Others, Judgment, 27 January 2025. Submissions from Open Doors International and SAFFoRB Nepal Chapter. Submission from SAFFoRB Nepal Chapter. Submission from Fedna Antoine. Submission from Egyptian Initiative for Personal Rights. CCPR/C/EGY/CO/5, paras. 43 and 44. Study of Discrimination in the Matter of Religious Rights and Practices, p. 35. A/HRC/58/49, paras. 47 and 50–56. 13