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Council of Europe Adopts Landmark Recommendation on Gender Equality in the Audiovisual Sector

This follows the Council of Europe’s Sarajevo Conference Declaration which was adopted in August 2015 during the Sarajevo Film Festival under the Bosnia and Herzegovina Chairmanship of the Committee of Ministers.

Photo: Sarajevo Conference Women in today’s film industry: gender issues. Can we do better? 2015

STRASBOURG, 28/09/2017 - The Committee of Ministers of the Council of Europe has adopted a landmark Recommendation on Gender Equality in the Audiovisual Sector. This follows the Council of Europe’s Sarajevo Conference Declaration which was adopted in August 2015 during the Sarajevo Film Festival under the Bosnia and Herzegovina Chairmanship of the Committee of Ministers.

The recommendation was drafted by a wide range of international experts from funds and broadcasters in Council of Europe member states, with feedback from representatives of prominent industry bodies and academics. 

It is the first ever pan-European recommendation to acknowledge the problems inherent in the industry from a gender perspective, including:

- the lack of awareness of the prevalence of gender inequality;

- the conscious and unconscious gender bias at all levels and 

- the unequal distribution of funding for audiovisual content among women and men; and to promote a variety of practical solutions to address these issues.

The recommendation invites governments of Council of Europe member states to:

- review their legislation and policies;

- collect, monitor and publish data;

- support research;

- encourage the ongoing development of media literacy and

- enhance the accountability processes.

It also contains a detailed series of monitoring methods and performance indicators to assist all sectors of the audiovisual industry in collecting data and taking coherent action on their findings. In addition, there is a handy list of reference tools for developing knowledge in this sector. Outreach events will be held to disseminate best practice and share know-how. 

The Eurimages film fund was instrumental in providing know-how for the content of the recommendation alongside the CDCPP (Steering Committee for Culture, Heritage and Landscape) and in fact Eurimages has a whole series of measures aimed at furthering gender equality in the film industry.

More info: http://www.coe.int/t/dg4/eurimages/gender/gender_en.asp