On 8 July 2025, the Spanish Ministry of Culture launched its first Plan on Cultural Rights for the period from 2025 to 2030. It is the first initiative of its kind in Europe, though it draws inspiration from other national legal frameworks (see, e.g., Mexico and Ecuador) and other non-binding, international documents (see Fribourg Declaration on Cultural Rights). The Directorate-General for Cultural Rights, established in 2024, led the drafting process of the Plan. This post will highlight four key areas reflecting a shift in the paradigm governing the legal treatment of culture and cultural rights in Europe. It will also argue that the Plan could serve as a blueprint for other cultural policy frameworks worldwide.
Placing Cultural Rights at the Centre
The most relevant and innovative feature of the Plan is the explicit recognition of culture as a self-standing human right, placing it at the heart of public action. The exercise of cultural rights, as the Plan emphasizes, “cannot be restricted nor subject to the logic of the market; it must be guaranteed as a right for everyone” (p. 26). Here lies the first shift from a capitalist ethos of culture toward a needs-based and rights-based approach. As Justin O’Connor (2024, p. 36) argues, the cultural sector in Europe has been absorbed into neoliberal policymaking within an economic rationality. Although references to cultural diversity and access are present in national cultural policies, such commitments are often subordinated to culture’s instrumental value to drive economic growth, enhance employment, and bolster competitiveness. As a result, the normative foundations of cultural rights remain underdeveloped in domestic cultural governance schemes.
The Spanish Plan draws heavily on the concept of cultural rights as universal, indivisible, and interdependent rights, in line with the relevant human rights treaties, CESCR General Comments, and the reports of the Special Rapporteurs on Cultural Rights. Consequently, it is considered part of Spain’s efforts to fulfil its international obligations to progressively respect, protect, and promote cultural rights. The Plan further advocates for the interpretation of Articles 20(1) and 44(1) of the Spanish Constitution in light of the human rights treaties ratified by Spain (Article 10(2)). The overarching goal is to lay the foundations for a future Law on Cultural Rights, one that will provide the fullest recognition, protection, and justiciability of such rights.
Culture is further recognized as a common good intrinsically linked to welfare, democracy, and social justice. Rather than conceptualizing culture as an industry or commodity, it is recognized as a social practice that shapes the identity and social life of individuals and communities. In this context, culture is not the exclusive domain of professionals, but it is constantly (re)produced in everyday practices. This perspective marks a second shift, moving from regarding individuals as passive consumers to acknowledging them as active creators of an evolving cultural landscape. The 2021 Porto Santo Charter reflects this orientation in response to the tendency of EU Member States to treat culture as an industry and investment, with legislation focusing on production and distribution chains (see Recommendation no. 3). The inclusive approach outlined in the Plan aims to counter the growing cultural disengagement that this treatment of culture has generated in individuals and communities, enabling them to reconnect with the European project, as well as with their local, regional, and/or national networks.
Recognizing the Transversality and Intersectionality of Culture
The central premise of the Plan is that cultural rights are not only ends in themselves, but also tools for addressing pressing societal issues such as growing inequality, climate change, the disruption of artificial intelligence, social polarization, and more. Given that cultural rights are interdependent, their full realization requires reassessing many other areas, including education, territorial distribution, sustainable development, diversity, plurilingualism, democratic memory, gender equality, digitalization, as well as health and labour rights of artists, cultural professionals, and the general population. To ensure that cultural rights are taken into account in the regulation of these areas, the Plan introduces a Cultural Rights Impact Assessment (CRIA), to be designed and implemented following the models of the Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA) and Gender Impact Assessment (GIA). In the European context, EIAs evaluate the effects of public and private projects on cultural heritage (see Directive 2014/52/EU, Article 3(1)(d)). However, this mechanism tends to adopt a narrow understanding of culture, focusing on its tangible manifestations and failing to account for the broader implications such projects may have on cultural rights. Hence, the third shift refers to the articulation of an autonomous CRIA, which operates independently of other impact assessments and provides the necessary information to actively protect cultural rights.
Replicating Good Practices: Cultural Democracy from Within
The Plan is the product of a shared governance model, driven by a framework of co-responsibility which involves civil society, private entities, and public institutions on an equal footing. Over 300 experts, organized into 13 working groups, contributed their insights through interviews and online questionnaires. Additionally, 23 associations from the cultural sector were consulted, and 928 citizen proposals were submitted through an online platform. The Plan also incorporates several shared governance mechanisms throughout its implementation and evaluation phases. These include the Annual Forum of Cultural Rights, a “Citizens’ Deliberative Device”, which is responsible for conducting both a mid-term (2025-2027) and final (2028-2030) assessments of the Plan, as well as a Participatory Commission.
These participatory processes exemplify good practice in cultural democracy by encouraging the social appropriation of cultural rights and promoting the development of a constructive spirit based on the principles of diversity, equality, and participation. Here, state institutions act merely as facilitators and promoters of culture. This represents a significant departure from the traditional access-based model that has long characterized European cultural policy, wherein the state functioned as the main provider and curator of culture, with minimal involvement from local communities. Within this framework, the fourth shift from an access-based approach towards a more genuine, situated, sustainable, and transformative approach to public participation becomes evident. This approach challenges the so-called Authorized Heritage Discourse coined by Laurajane Smith (2006, pp. 29-34) and upheld by UNESCO and national governments. Instead, it welcomes the participation of “heritage communities”, in compliance with the 2005 Faro Convention.
Echoing the Future: Implementation and Next Steps
In her address during the presentation of the Plan, the Special Rapporteur in the field of Cultural Rights, Alexandra Xanthaki, expressed her support for the Plan and stressed the importance of its effective implementation. The Plan contains 146 measures, 100 of which are of immediate application, while 46 are structural measures to be implemented in the medium and long term. These measures are organized into five strategic priorities: cultural democracy, addressing current challenges, promoting the sustainability and independence of the cultural ecosystem, consolidating cultural rights in public action, and fostering institutional commitment to cultural rights. To monitor the Plan’s implementation, indicators of fulfilment and impact are established. For the latter, the Plan draws on indicators developed by UNESCO, UNDP, and CEPAL, and it is also inspired by the Monitoring Framework of SDG 11.4.
Overall, this Plan serves as a roadmap aimed at the establishment of a consolidated system of cultural rights in Spain by 2030. Instead of imposing a centralized cultural agenda, the Plan integrates community-led initiatives into a national policy framework, thereby adopting a bottom-up approach. Due to its innovative methodologies, perspectives, and design, the Plan has levelled up Spain as a key player in international and European cultural leadership. The Plan will be the Spanish Ministry of Culture’s flagship initiative to be presented at MONDIACULT 2025, taking place in Barcelona in September-October 2025. According to the Ministry, the momentum has come to advance the specific recognition of culture as a stand-alone goal in the Post-2030 Agenda, and Spain has just taken a significant step forward.
Conclusion
In the context of a growing cultural and democratic backsliding, particularly, though not exclusively, in some European countries (see Artistic Freedom Initiative’s reports on Slovakia, Poland, and Hungary), articulating a robust system of cultural rights is one of the most effective ways to combat censorship, exclusion, discrimination, and intolerance. To this end, states must recognize that cultural rights can only be fully realized through the establishment of a cultural democracy that actively promotes pluralism. This vision of cultural democracy requires not only political willingness but also practical frameworks. In this regard, the content and decision-making processes of the Spanish Plan on Cultural Rights serve as an adaptable model within and beyond Europe. By foregrounding participation and co-responsibility, the Plan illustrates how public policy can empower individuals and communities to reclaim agency over their cultural lives. Culture and cultural rights are therefore not peripheral to democratic resilience: they provide the space necessary to imagine new solutions to the pressing local, national, and transnational challenges humanity faces. As Ngũgĩ wa Thiong’o noted, “nothing, not even culture, in a society can be said to have arrived at the best of all possible worlds”; this is why the future is a cultural act!