The Minister of Culture Ernest Urtasun appeared this Thursday at the Madrid Film Academy to present the Prevention and attention unit against violence in the audiovisual and cultural sector. This measure, promoted jointly by the two institutions, will allocate 60,000 euros per year to respond to situations of abuse and sexual assault, present and future, within the cultural sector. During his speech, the minister assured that the Government of Spain has “decided that the impunity of the aggressors is over“.
Urtasun has expressed that situations of sexual violence within different cultural spheres require “action” and “joint defense.” Likewise, the minister has established that his ministry has the “duty to accompany and support those women who dare to report” situations of abuse, as well as “respect the path they decide to travel” when dealing with these situations.
To this end, the recently articulated Prevention and attention unit against violence in the audiovisual and cultural sector will make a telephone and email address available to the victims, which they can use soulto contact two professional psychologists and a lawyer, independent of the Ministry and the Academy. Both institutions assure that “physical demand is not necessary, supported by the 2022 law.”
These supports will be designated throughout the summer and the Film Academy anticipates that they will be available starting in September. Through these resources, chosen directly from the Ministry of Culture, a measure of aid will be provided to those who wish. free for these cases.
For its part, Mar Rojo, representative of the Gender Equality Observatory in the cultural sector, seed of the initiative that was presented today, and president of the MIN association (Women in the Music Industry), has reiterated that the mission of the Observatory, launched in 2017, is to promote and make visible artistic creation and production of women in all their cultural manifestations. In addition, it seeks to better understand the reality of women and identify inequalities.
The concrete measures that the new Unit will address are the application of the “gender perspective in all institutions“, the creation of a “monitoring committee“from the same Observatory, and the execution of”training programs in schools and training centers” in order to offer “future generations of professionals in the sector the necessary tools to detect and prevent” situations of abuse. Starting from this basis, Virginia Yage, member of the Board of Directors and the Equality Commission of the institution, has assured that the goal is to “end the violence of the patriarchal system towards women in the world of cinema and the entire cultural sector.”
Cayetana Guillén-Cuervo, president of the Academy of Performing Arts, also participated in this event, aware of the “valid speaker” available to the industry: “We must strive to lead these types of initiatives and We must change these unacceptable behaviors“. He said that all the institutions that have participated in this initiative will collaborate “with a common effort to stop the violence with a collaboration web that expands the safety net to the entire society.” Guillén-Cuervo has also expressed gratitude for the compassion that this initiative makes him feel. “as a victim of sexual assault“. “I feel proud and useful being a reference and a light for everyone who wants to look because things can be changed, but we have to do it hand in hand.”
The Film Academy is aware that these abuses and violence against women have occurred and continue to occur in the profession. During his speech at the event, the president of the Academy, Fernando Mndez-Leitehas demanded “spaces of respect and equality” for the world of Culture “as in any other area of society.”
Ernest Urtasun closed the event and said that “not only women lose, loses culture and loses Spain because it loses equal treatment and the values that build a society like ours.” “Today we take a step forward in rights and equality,” he concluded.