6 interference with their private, family and community life, which involves protection of their culture and respect for the integrity of the values, practices and institutions of these peoples. 27. Protection under Article 12 (Freedom of Conscience and Religion) of the Convention entails the right of members of ethnic and cultural groups to protect, express, disseminate, develop, teach and change their practices, ceremonies, traditions, and spiritual customs, both in the public and private spheres. It also involves their right to not be forcefully converted and for beliefs not to be imposed upon them against their will. 28. Protection under Article 13 of the Convention (Freedom of Thought and Expression) includes the right of the members of ethnic and cultural groups to express their own culture, both in public and privately, that is, to use their dress, artistic expressions, their entertainment; to preserve their own language; to seek and obtain information on their culture; to participate in generating and disseminating information and to request that information they deem erroneous regarding their culture and history be corrected; to have access to the media and to establish their own media; to contact and conduct activities with other cultures or with members of their own culture who are outside their territory; and to be informed regarding all matters that affect their spiritual, social, cultural life, as well as their movable and real property. 29. Protection under Articles 15 (Right of Assembly) and 16 (Freedom of Association) of the Convention includes the right of the members of ethnic and cultural groups to meet and to establish associations in accordance with their own culture, values, and customary law. These rights, in combination with Article 23 (Right to Participate in Government) of the Convention, allow these persons to organize in accordance with their own traditional forms of organization, to elect their representatives in accordance with their own forms of election, and to foster their development in accordance with their aspirations and needs. 30. Protection under Article 17 (Rights of the Family) of the Convention asserts the right of the members of these groups to maintain their own forms of family organization and of kinship. 31. Protection under Article 18 (Right to a Name) of the Convention includes their right to name their communities, places and persons in their own language, and to maintain those names. 32. Protection under Article 21 (Right to Property) of the Convention includes the right to use and enjoy their material and non-material property. 33. Protection under Article 23 (Right to Participate in Government) of the Convention is based on acknowledgment of the right of members of ethnic and cultural groups to freely participate at all decision-making levels in public institutions responsible for policies and programs that concern them. 34. Finally, Articles 24 (Right to Equal Protection) and 1(1) Obligation to Respect Rights) of the American Convention are two cross-cutting themes that run through all the aforementioned aspects, as members of ethnic and cultural groups are free and equal to all persons in dignity and rights and must fully enjoy human rights and basic freedoms, with no obstacles or discrimination of any sort. Furthermore, in some