The Spanish Ombudsman or Defender of the People (Spanish: Defensor del Pueblo) is the ombudsman of the Cortes Generales responsible for defending the fundamental rights and public liberties of citizens by supervising the activity of public administrations.

The ombudsman is created by the Constitution and regulated by an Organic Law of 1981. The ombudsman and the two deputy ombudsmans are nominated by both the Congress of Deputies and Senate through a joint committee that chooses the candidates and proposes them to the Chambers. The candidates must be approved by three-fifths of both Chambers. If these qualified majorities are not reached, a new joint committee must to be formed to choose another candidate or to maintain the previous one but the second must get in a second voting three fifths of the Congress and an absolute majority of the Senate. To be chosen ombudsman it is necessary to be a Spaniard, adult and having the full enjoyment of one's civil and political rights.

The Ombudsman ceases by resignation, expiration of the term of appointment, by death or disability, by acting with gross negligence in compliance with the obligations and duties of the office or by having been convicted, by final judgment, of willful misconduct. In the case that the office is vacant, it is the First Deputy Ombudsman who assumes the office as Acting Ombudsman.^[2]

The Ombudsman is assisted by a First Deputy and a Second Deputy Ombudsman, in which they can delegate their functions and who will replace them by order, in the exercise of the same, in the cases of temporary impossibility and cessation. The Ombudsman shall appoint and separate their Deputies following the approval of the Cortes Generales in the manner determined by their Regulations. The Ombudsman may freely appoint the extra advisors necessary for the exercise of their functions, in accordance with the Regulations and within budgetary limits. People who are in the service of the Ombudsman are considered as a person at the service of the Cortes Generales.

The deputies and advisers will automatically cease at the moment of taking possession of a new Ombudsman.

The deputies have the same prerogatives and incompatibilities and the same requirements to be chosen Deputy Ombudsman as the Ombudsman.^[2]

The Ombudsman not only looks after the fulfillment of the human rights in the General State Administration but also in the regional and local administrations. They can do so ex officio or by the request of a third party. When the Ombudsman receives complaints regarding the acting of the Administration of Justice, they should be redirected to the Public Prosecutor's Office so that the latter may investigate its reality and adopt the appropriate measures in accordance with the law, or transfer them to the General Council of the Judiciary, according to the type of claim in question; all this without prejudice to the reference that in their general report to the Cortes Generales can do to the subject.

The Ombudsman will also ensure respect for the rights in the scope of the Military Administration, without it interfering in the command of the National Defense.

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