Under the heading of fundamental rights, Article 16 of the Spanish Constitution protects the right to ideological freedom of all the people who make up society, considering it an essential and fundamental manifestation of human dignity and the maximum expression of our capacity to shape a particular ethical vision in the sphere of our own conscience. The same article of the Constitution enshrines the right of the individual to keep his or her convictions private, and categorically forbids obliging anyone to declare their political, ideological or religious beliefs.
