GENEVA—11 March 2025—Iran’s government was rebuked by the United Nations Special Rapporteur on freedom of religion or belief, Professor Nazila Ghanea, who in strong remarks said the Islamic Republic could not “hide” its violation of the right of Baha’is to bury deceased loved ones.
The exchange occurred last week at the current session of the UN Human Rights Council (HRC), in Geneva, after an Iranian representative denied findings in the Special Rapporteur’s report A/HRC/58/49 on freedom of religion or belief and the prohibition of torture and other cruel inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment, that “members of the Bahá’í faith [are] being prevented from burying their dead in available cemetery land and instead being forced to bury their dead on top of a mass grave site.”
In a blatant attempt to mislead, the Iranian government made a statement reacting to the Special Rapporteur’s report on cemetery destructions and the systemic restrictions imposed on the Baha’is in Iran. The Iranian representative falsely claimed that land allocation for private cemeteries follows national regulations aimed at ensuring equitable access and proper burial site management. This assertion was made to deflect from the real issue and falsely equate these regulations with standard practices observed in other countries, despite clear evidence to the contrary regarding discrimination against the Baha’is.
Professor Ghanea, in a direct response to this denial, stressed the larger context of persecution faced by religious minorities in Iran and criticized the Iranian delegation’s attempt to dismiss the issue.
“One cannot hide behind claims that a cemetery is private, to sideline state obligations in relation to its largest non-Muslim religious minority community, the Baha’is in Iran,” the Special Rapporteur said. “Hundreds of Baha’i cemeteries throughout Iran have been destroyed, burnt, and bulldozed over decades. Baha’i burials have been needlessly delayed due to groundless and cynical impediments raised by the authorities.”
A former Special Rapporteur on the freedom of religion or belief, Heiner Bielefeldt, had in previous years also said the persecution of Baha’is in Iran extended from “cradle to grave” and called it “one of the most extreme manifestations of religious persecution today.”
“This recent report by the Special Rapporteur comes as Iran has intensified its pressures on Baha’i cemetery lands in Iran,” said Simin Fahandej, Representative of the Baha’i International Community to the United Nations in Geneva. “In Iran, the Baha’is have been denied not only the right to live peacefully, but even to die in peace. Any human being with a conscience would at least allow the dignity of the dead to remain and respect the right of families to mourn and bury their loved ones in accordance with their faith. The Iranian government’s actions represent not only a calculated effort to culturally cleanse the very identity of Iranian Baha’is but to further add to psychological and mental suffering.”
In the past 12 months alone, Baha’i cemeteries in at least 14 major Iranian cities have faced either desecration or other interference in their operations by the government. Intelligence agents have forcibly taken over management of cemeteries, forcing Baha’is to pay fees for burials in their own land, and in some cases denying the Baha’is the right to bury their loved ones in accordance with their religious practice.
These injustices have occurred in cemeteries in cities across Iran including Tehran, Karaj, Shiraz, Ahvaz, Kermanshah, Kerman, Yazd, Semnan, Mashhad and Rafsanjan.
During the Human Rights Council session, Canada also voiced its support for the rights of Iranian Baha’is, saying that Canada “remains concerned by disrespect for funeral rituals and the destruction of cemeteries and places of worship,” and that the “burial rights for members of religious minorities, such as the Baha’i community, must continue to be protected.”
For 46 years, since the 1979 Islamic Revolution, Baha’is in Iran have faced cemetery desecrations and the destruction of Baha’i-owned cemeteries. They have been denied funeral and burial rights according to Baha’i beliefs, barred from accessing the resting places of loved ones, and sometimes imprisoned for seeking justice. Baha’is in Tehran have also had to endure government agents forcibly burying their loved ones in the Khavaran mass grave site in their absence and against their wishes.
These violations are part of a broader effort to culturally cleanse Iran of its Baha’i community. In 1991, a confidential policy document, “The Baha’i Question” signed by Iran’s Supreme Leader, Ali Khamenei, formalized the Iranian government’s plan to block the “progress and development” of the Baha’i community. The document reveals the government’s deliberate efforts to restrict Bahá’í access to education, employment, and cultural participation in civic life.
Baha’is in Iran are subjected to arbitrary arrests and detentions, physical and psychological abuse, enforced disappearance, forced business closures, property confiscation and destruction, including cemeteries, house raids, and hate speech by officials, clergy and state media. These actions have been widely condemned yet Iranian officials continue to deny such abuses.
The Baha’i International Community continues to call on the international community to demand an end to these unlawful actions and hold Iran accountable for its ongoing human rights violations.
