Cultural Rights Now: Voices at Risk, Access in Action
Barcelona, Spain
MONDIACULT, UNESCO’s World Conference on Cultural Policies, was first held in 1982. Since then, the gathering has become a dominant annual gathering space for diverse members of the arts, culture, and human rights sectors. The forum, attended by all UNESCO member states, is a crucial stage for setting the global cultural agenda.
On 1 October 2025, in Barcelona, Spain, ARC — Artists at Risk Connection, in collaboration with EBA — Europe Beyond Access, the Diputació de Barcelona, and the British Council, will host the side event “Cultural Rights Now: Voices at Risk, Access in Action.” With expert interventions and a conversation with renowned creatives, the event will underscore persisting challenges to advancing cultural rights and the inclusive approaches taken by organizations and practitioners to center marginalized voices in such discussions.
Cultural Rights Now: Voices at Risk, Access in Action
1 October 2025
13:30 – 14:30
Room 118-119
Barcelona International Convention Center (CCIB)
This side event will explore how cultural rights are being enacted and defended through the work of organisations such as ARC and EBA. Interventions will highlight how censorship, disability, and exclusion intersect with cultural policy and artistic freedom. Through real-world examples and general frameworks for action, including the Barcelona Declaration on Cultural Rights, the session will foster a dialogue among artists, cultural workers, and policymakers. The side event will surface shared strategies and challenges in advancing cultural rights, with a focus on inclusive, rights-based approaches that center the voices of those most affected.
Agenda
- Welcome & Opening Remarks
- Brief Organizational Inputs
Diputació de Barcelona, “On the Barcelona Declaration on Cultural Rights”
ARC, “On Censorship and Legislative Reform”
EBA, “On Disability, Access, and Cultural Innovation”
- Dialogue Among Invited Artists & Cultural Workers
Diana Anselmo, Performer, Visual Artist, Activist, and Member of Al.Di.Qua
Tere Badia, Member of the Steering Group of the Barcelona Declaration on Cultural Rights
Abid Hussain, Director, Diversity (Senior Director), Arts Council England
- Audience Q&A
- Closing Remarks
Speakers
Ben Evans
Ben Evans is the Project Director of Europe Beyond Access (EBA). Now working for EBA lead partner Skånes Dansteater, Ben ran the previous generation of EBA on behalf of the British Council, for whom Ben was the Head of European Arts & Disability programmes from 2015-2023. In addition to initiating EBA, Ben developed collaborations between European cultural ministries and Arts Councils – to explore accessible cultural practices amongst policymakers. Ben was also the founder and commissioner of the website of www.DisabilityArtsInternational.org.
Pau González Val
Pau González Val is the Delegate President of the Culture Area at Diputació de Barcelona. He has a degree in Political Science and Administration from Pompeu Fabra University. He is also Deputy spokesperson for the ECP-C group and holds numerous representative positions in affiliated entities across the arts and culture sector.
Daniel Granados Ginés
Daniel Granados Ginés is the Cultural Rights Delegate at the Diputació de Barcelona, as well as a musician, producer, cultural researcher, and professor of the Master’s Degree in Cultural Industry and Sound Studies at the Carlos III University of Madrid (UC3M). He has been the driving force behind the Cultura Viva program in Barcelona. He directed Producciones Doradas and was the founder of the International Music Observatory (IMO), an organization dedicated to the research and analysis of the music sector in urban contexts. He was a founding member of the ZZZINC platform for cultural research and innovation. He has collaborated with the Sónar and Monkey Week festivals and has directed the radio program El Diferencial.
Diana Anselmo, aka “Anselmo”
(they / them in English, he/him where language is binary)
Diana Anselmo is a Deaf performer and visual artist, activist and improvised human being.
Bilingual LIS and Italian, during their master’s degree in Theater and Performing Arts they debuted with “Autoritratto in tre atti” (2021), still presented in various Italian and foreign festivals (Serbia, Switzerland, Portugal).
Abroad, they debuted in Berlin, performing with the likes of Xavier Le Roy in “Le Sacre du Printemps (2022).”
Actually, they are holding their first solo exhibition “Je Vous Aime” at Fondazione Sandretto in Italy.
They’re among the founders of Al.Di.Qua. Artists, Europe’s first association of and for artists with disabilities, for which Diana has participated as a speaker in some European Festivals (IntegrART – Switzerland, DansFunk – Sweden, Holland Dance Festival – Netherlands).
Diana is accessibility manager of the Oriente Occidente Festival – with specific focus on the Deaf community. Among other things, youngest member of the Cultural Advisory Board of the British Council.
Tere Badia
Tere Badia holds a degree in Art History from the Universitat de Barcelona and an MA in Information and Knowledge Society by the IN3 (Internet Interdisciplinary Institute) of the UOC. She is dedicated to cultural research and production in various formats. She has carried out several studies on cultural policies, networks, and R+D+i for the visual arts. Tere has curated exhibitions and projects of contemporary art. She has been professionally linked to the Interarts Observatory in the 90s, the communication and multimedia agency Goetzinger&Komplizen (Karlsruhe). Tere coordinated the platform DISONANCIAS in Catalonia for the promotion of the relations between artists and research departments of companies and organizations, as well as the network of visual arts production spaces of Catalonia xarxaprod. Until January 2018, Tere Badia was director of Hangar – center for artistic production and research in Barcelona.
Abid Hussain
Abid Hussain is Director, Diversity with responsibility for delivering the Arts Council’s work on equality, diversity and inclusion. He currently leads on the delivery of the organisation’s Inclusivity & Relevance Investment Principle and Equality Objectives.
He is an alumnus of the U.S International Visitor Leadership Programme (IVLP) and the Salzburg Global Seminar and is currently completing an MBA at Aston University. Abid has extensive experience of working with cultural agencies, government and academia internationally and has contributed to several international conferences and academic texts and journals in his field of expertise.
Julie Trébault
Julie Trébault is the Founder and Executive Director of ARC — Artists at Risk Connection, a global organization dedicated to safeguarding artistic freedom and supporting artists and cultural workers under threat. Under her leadership, ARC provides critical resources and support to more than 2,100 artists in more than 60 countries facing persecution from state and non-state actors, empowering them to overcome challenges to their creative expression. Prior to founding ARC, she served as director of public programs at the Museum of the City of New York and the Center for Architecture.
