Special Rapporteur Says Denial of Funeral Rights Can Amount to Religious Coercion

(Geneva) – A landmark report by the United Nations Special Rapporteur on freedom of religion or belief has drawn direct attention to Pakistan’s treatment of the Ahmadiyya Muslim Community, identifying denial of burial rights, grave desecration, and obstruction of funerals as serious violations of religious freedom.

The report, How Freedom of Religion or Belief Relates to Death and Honouring the Deceased (A/HRC/61/50), was published in January 2026 by Professor Nazila Ghanea and presented to the 61st session of the UN Human Rights Council in Geneva in March.

Drawing on 66 written submissions and contributions from more than 60 workshop participants, the report examines how states use death, burial, and funeral administration as instruments of discrimination against religious minorities, Indigenous communities, and non-believers.

Ghanea introduced the concept of “funeral rights” to describe the legal and human rights protections surrounding burial, mourning, and the treatment of the deceased. She argued that denying these rights can violate Article 18 of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights and that severe restrictions on burial rites can amount to coercion of the living, forcing people to abandon or conceal their beliefs during periods of grief.

Pakistan is specifically named in the report. It notes that Ahmadis face constitutional discrimination that extends to death and burial, with authorities frequently denying access to graveyards, desecrating graves, and allowing mob obstruction of funerals.

The report states that states must protect burial sites from hatred-motivated attacks and provide remedies when violations occur, rejecting the idea that formally neutral laws are sufficient where minority funeral practices are treated differently in practice.

For Ahmadis in Pakistan, those violations have been extensive. Between 2021 and 2025, 1,046 Ahmadi graves were desecrated across the country in incidents involving either direct state action or operations carried out with official approval and extremist support. These attacks have included the removal of Quranic inscriptions from gravestones, destruction of headstones, sealing of graveyards, and obstruction of burials.

One of the most widely cited examples remains the grave of Abdus Salam, Pakistan’s only Nobel laureate, where the word “Muslim” was removed from his epitaph under Pakistan’s anti-Ahmadi legal framework.

The report concludes that governments must address disproportionate burdens placed on minority funeral practices, prevent attacks on burial sites, and ensure accountability where violations occur. Human rights advocates say Pakistan remains in clear breach of those obligations, where Ahmadi cemeteries are routinely targeted and funeral rights are denied through both law and administrative practice.