Coordinación del eje Desigualdad. Plan de Derechos culturales del Ministerio de Cultura
Throughout 2024 and 2025, the Ministry of Culture has been working on the development and implementation of a Cultural Rights Plan that will serve as a roadmap for taking action in the area of cultural rights, incorporating an assessment of the current situation, identifying specific objectives to be achieved, and outlining concrete measures for their implementation.
This plan aims to ensure that all citizens can access and enjoy culture on an equal footing, promoting cultural diversity and protecting the rights of cultural actors and professionals in the sector.
It is structured around thirteen interconnected thematic areas: local development and community action, education, cultural mediation, gender equality, ethnic and racial diversity, linguistic diversity, disability, inequality, intergenerational culture, sustainability and the 2030 Agenda, digital rights, evaluation of cultural policies, and regulatory alignment and best practices.
On behalf of hablarenarte, Carlos Almela, together with Dagmary Olívar from YoSoyElOtro, has been coordinating the “Inequality” theme. The goal of this theme is to highlight cultural gaps in Spain across key dimensions of cultural rights—access and participation, cultural creation or production, and decision-making—and to advocate for a culture for everyone in the interest of a more just and egalitarian society.
Do we know for certain whether our cultural system reinforces social justice or undermines it? What developments, measures, and best practices would strengthen equality from within the cultural fabric? What policies can guide public action in that direction? What concepts or developments could guide a cultural policy that incorporates the issue of inequality? These are just some of the questions we are asking ourselves to outline the specific measures that can be proposed under the Inequality pillar.
Under the Inequality pillar, we have decided to focus particularly on the following dimensions:
- Social class and economic inequality
- Precariousness, social exclusion, and poverty
- Specific groups: vulnerable youth, homelessness, incarcerated individuals, people in situations of dependency, illness/health, hospitalization, nursing homes, isolation, unwanted loneliness
- Territories: territorial inequalities, cultural capitals / other cities, urban centers / urban peripheries, urban / rural, empty Spain
- Exclusionary ideas of culture / popular cultures, folklores, other traditions and forms of minoritized or emerging culture
- Technification, bureaucratization, sophistication of access and participation in culture
These dimensions will be addressed from five main cultural rights: access, participation, governance, artistic creation, and cultural identity.
With this approach, the aim is to prioritize large segments of the population affected by inequality in Spain (millions of people earning a thousand euros, unemployed individuals, people at risk of social exclusion) while also addressing smaller groups whose cultural rights are being violated (30,000 homeless people in our country, 40,000 prisoners...). And ensuring the right to a decent and equal job for cultural professionals.
For all of this, from the Inequality axis, in addition to the coordinating team, there is a working group made up of experts from different areas of culture:
- Montse Tort. ICUB, Cultura i desigualtat.
- Elena Blesa. PAAC.
- María Lorenzo. La voz que nadie escucha. Fundación Gabeiras
- Julio Jara. Artista.
- Isabel Bueno. Profesora del CEIP Núñez Arenas
- Fátima Ezzamouri. Investigadora
- Vicente Arlandis. Taller Placer
- Susan Danitza Ríos. Aye Cultura Social
- Amapola López. Antigua responsable del programa de mediación del Ayuntamiento de Sevilla y de Factoría Cultural
- Roser Sanjuan. La Panera
- Veronica Laorden / Elena Méndez CEAR
- Roberto Bernad. Fundación Santander
- César Rendueles. CSIC
- Lucas Rodríguez. El cinorrio
- Francesco B.Bondanini. Oxígeno Cultural
- Sara García. Comisión de inclusión de la Red Española de Teatros
- Mercedes Roldán. DGPCBA
- Paloma Muñóz Campos. Museo Nacional de Artes Decorativas
- Leticia Sastre. Subdirectora Adjunta. Subdirección General de Museos Estatales
- Ines de Egaña. SG de Cooperación con las Comunidades Autónomas
- Lucía de la Cal. SG de Cooperación con las Comunidades Autónomas
- Ángela Martínez-Carrasco. SG de Cooperación con las Comunidades Autónomas
- Clara López. SG de Cooperación con las Comunidades Autónomas
- Alicia Vallina. Vocal Asesora Dirección General ICAA
The Cultural Rights Plan, as well as the measures proposed from each axis, were announced last September at the X Meeting of Culture and Citizenship in Santiago de Compostela, and its finalized version will be presented in July 2026 at the Reina Sofía Museum.
Click here to see the full Plan.
