The Film Academy and the Ministry of Culture promote a protocol to prevent sexist violence in the cultural sector

Promoters of the Care Unit against sexist violence in the audiovisual and cultural sector, the Film Academy and the Ministry of Culture have introduced the new Framework Protocol and the web unidadculturasinviolencia.es. Likewise, both institutions have taken stock of the first year of operation of the Unit's Care Service, an initiative that began operating in October 2024.

The president of the Film Academy, Fernando Méndez-Leite, pointed out “the crucial importance” of this initiative for the cultural sector. "For this institution, it is a challenge and a responsibility to serve as a point of reference to detect and address situations of violence against women in our industry, and to accompany the victims in the best possible way. We want to live up to this commitment," he assured. During the presentation, the Minister of Culture, Ernest Urtasun, added that "this Unit was born to tell all women in cinema, audiovisuals and culture that they are going to be heard, that their story matters and that it is a collective and indispensable task to amplify their voices, to give them the place they had not had." They also participated in the day Ines Enciso, coordinator of the Development and Research department of the Film Academy, and Jazmín Beirak, general director of Cultural Rights of the Ministry of Culture.

From today, the “Protocol for Prevention and Action against Sexist Violence in the Cultural Sector"is available to all professional people, companies, entities and organizations, who can adhere to this framework of common action in the cultural sector and implement it and adapt it to different realities. In addition, the Unit offers a advisory service, both for adapting the protocol to their needs and for activating the procedure if they consider it necessary, with the aim that no organization feel alone in these situations and the Unit can accompany them, guide and facilitate each step.

For its part, the website unidadculturasinviolencia.es has been presented as a central tool to publicize the Unit. On this autonomous, clear and accessible website you will not only be able to consult all the information, services and resources offered by the Unit, but it will also function as a meeting point that links institutions and entities that work on the same objectives. It is presented as a living platform, in constant growth, which will incorporate resources, studies, good practices and tools from other organizations.

First year of care service

From its start-up and until the October 30, 2025, he First Care Service of the Unit has attended to 55 cases, many of them with queries related to more than one topic. Thus, 60% were related to information about the services offered by the Unit; 24% were related to legal and psychological issues; 24% of the consultations were legal, and 5.4% were psychological issues.

Regarding the typology of the consultation, the 43% of queries received They made reference to situations of sexual assault, most of them past in time and with psychological consequences in the present, and the 36% to harassment situations and abuse in the work context. In many of the consultations attended, it was detected that women had suffered several forms of violence simultaneously. In fact, more than 52% of them had suffered psychological violence.

After the first attention, of the 55 cases attended, 43.6% decided to access the services offered by the unit: 66.6% to the legal service and 33.3% to the psychological service. The Unit offers five counseling sessions (legal and/or psychological) provided by specialist professionals. If a case requires longer attention, they are referred to the most appropriate public services. By sectors, the majority of people who made the query came from the audiovisual sector (60%), followed by performing arts (10.9%), music (7.14%), cultural management (5.45%) and plastic arts (3.65%).

After the presentation of the latest initiatives and the balance of the last year, the day was completed with a technical table with the title of “Reflections on resources for the prevention and attention of sexist violence in the cultural sector”. Neus Pérez, coordinator of the Department against violence in the audiovisual and performing arts sector of the Catalan Cinema Academy; María Naredo, Spanish jurist and researcher, specialized in human rights and gender, and Priscila Cabrera, Strategic Development Coordinator and Advocacy Manager at the Aspacia Foundation, participated in this panel, which was moderated by the screenwriter, director, producer and journalist, Jenifer de la Rosa.