Indigenous Access to Sacred Sites on Private Land: IARF Oral Statement at the UN Human Rights Council

Description

On 5 March 2026, the International Association for Religious Freedom delivered this oral statement during the Human Rights Council’s interactive dialogue with UN Special Rapporteur on freedom of religion or belief Nazila Ghanea. Responding to the Special Rapporteur’s report on death and honouring the deceased, IARF highlights a regulatory gap affecting Indigenous communities when ancestral burial places and sacred sites lie on privately owned or privately governed land.

The statement uses Kāneʻākī Heiau in Hawaiʻi as an illustrative case, where Native Hawaiian practitioners face barriers in accessing and caring for iwi kūpuna, ancestral remains. IARF calls on states to assess sacred and burial sites affected by private land governance and develop legal and policy frameworks that reconcile property rights with Indigenous peoples’ rights to access sacred places, care for the deceased and manifest religion or belief.