The Ministry of Culture will provide psychological and legal support to victims of sexual assault and abuse before they file a complaint. This was announced today by the head of the ministry, Ernest Urtasun, and the director of the Film Academy, Fernando Méndez-Leite, who presented … together the Prevention and Attention Unit against Violence in the Audiovisual and Cultural Sector, which will take several months to become operational.
Victims will have at their disposal an email address and a telephone number where they can make their demands. They will be able to do so before going to court “something that is supported by law,” according to Virginia Yagüe, member of the Board of Directors and the Equality Commission of the Academy.
With a budget of 60,000 euros per year, the service for victims of abuse will have a short staff, a lawyer and a psychologist, and will be launched in September. The professionals have not yet been selected and many details remain to be specified.
According to Yagüe, “the initiative is necessary and wants to be an integral part of a historic change.” «The complaints, which will be made anonymously and without the need for prior judicial complaints. A lawyer who can accompany the victim will be guaranteed,” he said. «We want to articulate phases of support that involve prevention and training. Prevention, because it will collect information to develop a protocol of good practices that can be implemented throughout the sector, and a specific training program will be created in schools and training centers, so that future generations have the necessary tools to detect and prevent these abuses,” said Yagüe.
The new unit “has among its objectives to prevent the spread of the feeling of impunity of those who harass women by taking advantage of positions of power and the fear that victims suffer by imposing a complaint. In this unit we are committed to equality and the end of violence against women,” said Méndez-Leite.
«We have the will to coordinate in order to prevent and address violence in the audiovisual sector and in the world of culture and to this end the new unit will offer both legal and psychological assistance to those who require it, accompaniment and monitoring of cases, proposing a meeting point that generates trust and humanizes the difficult situation of women who have suffered or may suffer this harassment and violence,” confirmed the director of the Film Academy.
“Impunity has ended for aggressors,” the Minister of Culture congratulated himself, “Three months ago we committed to creating this unit that is now a reality and we are already working on an equality plan for culture together with the associations and professionals in the sector that will soon see the light,” added Urtasun.
He highlighted the ministry’s commitment “to feminism and equality.” «Every time a worker feels expelled for earning less than her colleagues, that she is harassed in her work environment, that machismo breaks the path of filmmakers, set designers, painters, writers or editors, those who lose are not the women, but the We all lose. Lose culture and lose Spain. With the launch of this unit we take a step forward in rights and equality,” said the minister.
The Academy of Performing Arts joins this initiative, whose president, Cayetana Guillén-Cuervo, who presented herself as a victim of abuse, and made it an “absolute priority to do what is in our power to create a more equal, safe and solidary. We are aware of the visibility of the culture sector. To make this statement valid, we must make an effort so that society understands that we must change unacceptable behaviors and promote security and support for all women, regardless of the sector in which we work »she concluded.
