From constitutional scholars and human rights defenders to Buddhist and Hindu leaders, the Madrid-based awards have built a record of those working to protect freedom of religion or belief.
MADRID, Spain — The prize is a sword, but most of the struggles it recognises take place far from any battlefield. They unfold in courtrooms, universities, public institutions, community organisations and the quieter spaces where people of different convictions learn to understand one another.
Since 2014, the Religious Freedom Awards have recognised individuals and institutions for their contributions to freedom of thought, conscience, religion and belief. When their thirteenth edition was held in Madrid on September 25, 2026, the initiative had recognised 43 principal recipients across thirteen editions, as well as a special mention in 2018.
The full history is wider than any one ceremony. It embraces constitutional law, minority religious communities, academic research, public administration, social inclusion and interfaith dialogue. Examined year by year, the awards provide a distinctive view of how the defence of religious freedom has been approached in Spain and beyond.
The Origins of the Awards
The Religious Freedom Awards began in 2014 through an initiative which I started as President of the Church of Scientology of Spain. From 2015, they were organised by the Fundación para la Mejora de la Vida, la Cultura y la Sociedad, known as Fundación Mejora, a nonprofit foundation established by the Church of Scientology. The foundation has held special consultative status with the United Nations Economic and Social Council (ECOSOC) since 2019; the awards themselves are not United Nations awards.
Recipients receive a replica of the Tizona, a sword associated with the medieval Spanish figure El Cid and traditionally produced in Toledo. The organisers present it as a symbol of the defence of freedom, dignity and justice. The official roll of honour explains that earlier recipients take part in selecting subsequent awardees, creating a continuing network of people and institutions recognised for their work.
That network began with legal scholars and has gradually widened to include public institutions, prosecutors, migration organisations, anthropologists, and representatives of religious and spiritual traditions.
2014: Building a Foundation in Law and Human Rights
The inaugural recipients were Dionisio Llamazares Fernández, Ricardo García García and Isabel Ayuso Puente. Their selection placed freedom of conscience, constitutional law and human rights at the centre of the new initiative.
Llamazares Fernández was a leading professor of State Ecclesiastical Law whose scholarship examined conscience, secularism and the relationship between religious freedom and democratic government. García García, a professor at the Autonomous University of Madrid and former official responsible for relations with religious denominations at the Ministry of Justice, combined academic work with knowledge of public administration.
Ayuso Puente, a lawyer and human rights defender, brought a civil society dimension to the first ceremony. She later became closely associated with the awards as secretary-general of Fundación Mejora. Taken together, the three recipients illustrated a central question for Spain: how to give practical effect to constitutional guarantees of freedom of religion and conscience.
2015: A Landmark British Case and Spanish Institutions
The second edition recognised Mercedes Murillo Muñoz, Peter David Hodkin and the Department of State Ecclesiastical Law at the University of León. These selections linked Spain’s legal framework with an international judicial development.
Murillo Muñoz worked in the field of State Ecclesiastical Law and in Spain’s public administration, contributing to questions involving the relationship between the government and religious communities. The University of León department, represented by its director Salvador Tarodo Soria, was recognised for its contribution to legal scholarship on religious freedom.
British solicitor Peter Hodkin was associated with the litigation that led to the 2013 UK Supreme Court judgment in R (Hodkin and another) v Registrar General. The Court rejected an unduly narrow understanding of religious worship in a case involving registration of a Church of Scientology chapel for marriage ceremonies. The ruling illustrated why the legal definition of religion matters to communities whose traditions differ from familiar majority models.
2016: Religious Pluralism Becomes an Institutional Question
In 2016, the recipients were Óscar Celador Angón, the Fundación Pluralismo y Convivencia and Iván Jiménez-Aybar. Their work reflected the importance of creating practical conditions for minority religions to exercise their rights.
Celador Angón, a professor at Carlos III University of Madrid, contributed research on religious liberty and comparative legal systems. Jiménez-Aybar combined legal and academic perspectives on religious diversity, migration and public policy.
The recognition of Fundación Pluralismo y Convivencia, linked to Spain’s Ministry of Justice, was particularly notable. The foundation was established to support religious diversity and improve the conditions in which minority religious communities operate. Its inclusion signalled that institutional initiatives, as well as individual scholarship, were central to the awards’ understanding of religious freedom.
2017: Human Rights, Public Neutrality and Conscience
The fourth edition honoured the Pedro Arrupe Human Rights Institute at the University of Deusto, Juan Ferreiro Galguera and María Cruz Llamazares Calzadilla. The selection joined a human rights institution with two specialists in the law of religion and conscience.
The Pedro Arrupe Institute is known for research and education concerning human dignity and fundamental rights. Ferreiro Galguera, a professor at the University of A Coruña, has examined religious symbols, state neutrality and the relationship between individual liberties and public institutions.
Llamazares Calzadilla, a professor at Carlos III University of Madrid, has worked on freedom of conscience and the legal limits of public intervention in matters of belief. The awards highlighted the connection between religious liberty and the wider human rights framework: protecting belief involves not only the legal status of religious organisations but also the equal dignity of individuals.
2018: From University Research to Policing Discrimination
The fifth edition recognised Eugenia Relaño Pastor, Miguel Rodríguez Blanco and the specialist legal journal Laicidad y Libertades. A special mention went to the Diversity Management Unit of Madrid’s Municipal Police.
Relaño Pastor has researched religious minorities, discrimination and accommodation of religious practices, while Rodríguez Blanco, a professor at the University of Alcalá, has contributed to scholarship on religious organisations, education and the legal framework governing relations between religion and the state. The journal’s award acknowledged the role of sustained legal debate in improving public understanding of these issues.
The police unit’s special mention extended the discussion into everyday public services. How officers receive complaints, recognise discriminatory conduct and interact with minority communities can determine whether legal protections are meaningful in practice. The 2018 edition therefore connected academic analysis with the responsibilities of law enforcement.
2019: Hate Crimes, Equality and Freedom of Conscience
The sixth edition honoured Miguel Ángel Aguilar García, Adoración Castro Jover and Marcos González Sánchez. Aguilar García, a prosecutor associated with the investigation and prosecution of hate crimes and discrimination, brought a criminal justice perspective to the ceremony.
His work drew attention to how hostility toward religious groups can circulate both offline and online, and to the importance of distinguishing unlawful threats or incitement from speech protected by law. Castro Jover, a professor at the University of the Basque Country, has researched freedom of conscience, secularism and the legal treatment of religion. González Sánchez, at the Autonomous University of Madrid, has also contributed research on State Ecclesiastical Law and religious diversity.
The combination reflected the complex relationship between the freedom to hold or express beliefs and the responsibility of public institutions to protect people from discrimination or violence because of those beliefs.
2020: Religious Freedom During a Public Health Crisis
The seventh edition, held during the COVID-19 pandemic, recognised Alejandro Torres Gutiérrez, Rafael Valencia Candalija and Catalina Pons-Estel Tugores. The unusual circumstances of that year made the relationship between public health, collective religious activity and individual rights especially visible.
Torres Gutiérrez, a professor at the Public University of Navarre, has researched religious liberty, the financing of religious organisations and comparative approaches to relations between religious communities and the state. Valencia Candalija, of the University of Seville, has examined questions including religion and sport, where clothing, scheduling and religious expression intersect with institutional rules. The University of Seville reported his award.
Pons-Estel Tugores, at the University of the Balearic Islands, has worked on Spain’s religious freedom legislation and issues affecting religious communities and marriage. The year also marked the fortieth anniversary of Spain’s Organic Law on Religious Freedom, providing an occasion to consider how the country’s legal framework was adapting to changing social conditions.
2021: Three Women Scholars Recognised
In 2021, the eighth edition honoured Isabel Cano Ruiz, Zoila Combalía Solís and Mercedes Vidal Gallardo. All three were academic specialists whose work contributes to understanding the legal and social questions surrounding freedom of religion and belief.
Cano Ruiz, of the University of Alcalá, has studied conscience and religion through legal and cultural perspectives. Combalía Solís, a professor at the University of Zaragoza, has researched religious freedom, discrimination and the status of religious communities, including within European legal frameworks.
Vidal Gallardo, at the University of Valladolid, has worked on religion, legal pluralism and the intersection between religious practices and other areas of law. Their recognition made visible the contribution of women scholars to a discipline that influences policy discussions on education, discrimination, religious accommodation and equal treatment.
2022: Religious Freedom, Education and Migration
The ninth edition recognised Ana Vega Gutiérrez, Ana Leturia Navarro and Fundación La Merced Migraciones. Their combined work showed that the protection of religious liberty reaches beyond the courtroom into education, democratic citizenship and social inclusion.
Vega Gutiérrez, of the University of La Rioja, has worked on human rights, democratic citizenship and freedom of religion. Leturia Navarro, of the University of the Basque Country, has examined freedom of conscience and the challenges religious diversity poses in schools and other public settings.
Fundación La Merced Migraciones works with migrants, refugees and vulnerable young people, offering assistance in areas such as accommodation, integration and legal support. Its award was a reminder that migrants may need protection not only from material insecurity but also from discrimination related to their identities, convictions or religious practices.
2023: A Tenth Anniversary and New Perspectives
The tenth edition, held in December 2023, recognised Mónica Cornejo Valle, Francisca Pérez Madrid and Igor Minteguía Arregui. It brought anthropology into particularly clear focus alongside established legal disciplines.
Cornejo Valle, a professor of Anthropology of Religion at the Complutense University of Madrid, studies lived religion and the ways communities experience and express belief. Pérez Madrid, a professor of State Ecclesiastical Law at the University of Barcelona, has examined religious liberty, the legal position of religious bodies and related individual rights.
Minteguía Arregui, a professor at the University of the Basque Country, has researched freedom of conscience, religious minorities and the legal relationship between artistic expression and religious sensibilities. Together, they illustrated why understanding religious liberty requires attention both to constitutional provisions and to the everyday social contexts in which religious identities are formed.
The anniversary also provided an opportunity to reflect on the awards’ first decade and to develop a collective scholarly publication about the challenges facing religious freedom in Spain and Europe.
2024: Islam, Secularism and a Decade of Research
The eleventh edition recognised Ana Isabel Planet Contreras, Santiago Cañamares Arribas and Fernando Luis Amérigo-Cuervo Arango. The selections combined research into contemporary Islam with expertise in constitutional and religious freedom law.
Planet Contreras, of the Autonomous University of Madrid, is known for her work on Islam and Muslim communities in Spain and Europe. Cañamares Arribas, at the Complutense University of Madrid, has researched religious freedom and the legal challenges of pluralism. Amérigo-Cuervo Arango, also at the Complutense, has contributed work on secularism, freedom of conscience and relations between public authorities and religious communities.
The anniversary project took tangible form in 10 Años de Promoción y Defensa de la Libertad Religiosa, a collective scholarly volume coordinated by Alejandro Torres Gutiérrez and Iván Arjona-Pelado and published by Dykinson in 2024. Its contributions addressed religious discrimination, education, cooperation agreements, minority communities, religious symbols and other questions affecting the present and future of freedom of belief.
The book helped give the awards a lasting research dimension, preserving discussions that might otherwise have remained confined to individual annual ceremonies.
2025: Buddhist and Hindu Representatives Among Five Honourees
The twelfth edition, held on September 19, 2025, expanded the number of principal recipients to five: Salvador Pérez Álvarez, Óscar Salguero Montaño, Javier García Oliva, Luis Miorente Leal and Pandit Krishna Kripa Dasa (Juan Carlos Ramchandani).
Pérez Álvarez, a professor of State Ecclesiastical Law at Spain’s National University of Distance Education (UNED), has researched the legal protection of religious freedom. Salguero Montaño, a social anthropologist at the Complutense University of Madrid, has studied religious diversity and the experiences of minority communities. García Oliva, a constitutional law scholar at the University of Manchester in the United Kingdom, brought comparative and international legal expertise.
Miorente Leal, a lawyer and president of the Unión Budista Española – Federación de Entidades Budistas de España, represented the work of Buddhist communities seeking recognition and equal treatment. Krishna Kripa Dasa, also known as Juan Carlos Ramchandani, is a Hindu priest and president of the Hindu Federation of Spain, long active in interreligious and cultural initiatives in Ceuta.
Their inclusion alongside academics made the religious diversity recognised by the awards especially visible. It also demonstrated that representatives of minority traditions can contribute practical experience to debates often dominated by legal and institutional specialists.
2026: Interfaith Dialogue and Spiritual Understanding
The thirteenth edition, held in Madrid on September 25, 2026, recognised Armando Lozano Hernández, the Reverend Dr Helen Hall, Daniel Gil-Benumeya Flores, José María Contreras Mazarío and CITeS – Universidad de la Mística.
Lozano Hernández, a member of the Unification Church and a figure associated with the Universal Peace Federation and Madrid’s Espacio Ronda cultural centre, has taken part in interreligious dialogue initiatives. Hall, an Anglican priest and legal scholar at Nottingham Trent University, researches the intersection of law, religion and constitutional rights.
Gil-Benumeya Flores, a professor of Arabic and Islamic Studies at the Complutense University of Madrid, has studied Islam, religious identity, history and discrimination. Contreras Mazarío, a professor of State Ecclesiastical Law at Pablo de Olavide University, has combined legal scholarship with experience in public administration.
The fifth award went to CITeS – Universidad de la Mística in Ávila, represented by its director, Father Jerzy Nawojowski, OCD. Rooted in the Discalced Carmelite tradition and the legacy of St Teresa of Ávila and St John of the Cross, the centre also supports encounters across spiritual traditions. The award extended recognition to an institution devoted to the study of mystical experience and religious understanding.
The 2026 selection brought together a Catholic institution, an Anglican priest, a Unification Church representative and scholars whose work engages with Islam and religious freedom law. It was another illustration of the expanding professional and religious backgrounds represented by the awards.
What the Complete Record Says About Religious Freedom
The history of the thirteen editions shows three recurring themes. First, legal scholarship has remained central: universities and specialists in State Ecclesiastical Law account for many recipients, reflecting the need to interpret and apply fundamental rights. Second, institutions and organisations matter: foundations, human rights centres, journals, migration services and public agencies help turn legal principles into social realities. Third, the awards have gradually given greater visibility to the direct experience of religious communities and interfaith initiatives.
This progression does not imply that every recipient approaches religious freedom in the same way. Their professional roles, religious affiliations and methods differ. What links them is recognition for work connected to the protection of belief, conscience, pluralism or dialogue.
The right itself extends beyond religious observance. Article 18 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights protects freedom of thought, conscience and religion, including the freedom to change one’s religion or belief. Spain’s Constitution likewise protects ideological, religious and worship freedoms. These guarantees also protect people who profess no religion.
The practical questions are often difficult: equal treatment of minority communities, religious symbols in public settings, education, employment, discrimination, access to justice and the boundaries between public authority and personal conviction. The diversity of the awardees illustrates why no single profession or institution can address them alone.
A Continuing Record, Not Just an Annual Ceremony
The Religious Freedom Awards began by honouring legal and human rights specialists. Over thirteen editions, they came to recognise a much wider group: prosecutors, anthropologists, administrators, migrant-support organisations, public institutions and religious representatives from several traditions.
Their history should be understood as an account of an independently organised initiative and of the people it has chosen to distinguish, not as an exhaustive measure of religious freedom in Spain. Nevertheless, the breadth of its recipients documents the many settings in which religious liberty is studied, defended and exercised.
The enduring principle running through the thirteen editions is that freedom of religion or belief gains its fullest practical meaning when its protection extends to others, including those whose convictions one does not share.