Alt Urgell approves a regional protocol against sexual violence at festivals

The Plenary of the Alt Urgell County Council approved on October 15, 2026, the Adhesion Protocol for addressing sexual and LGBTI-phobic violence in public festive spaces within the county. The text, processed under Exp. 875/2026, is published in full in the Official Gazette of the Province of Lleida no. 203, dated October 23, 2026, with the official reference BOP-2026_0_203_8763. The document establishes a common circuit of action in the face of assaults and specifies the “purple points” (safe spaces) that will be installed at the local festivals (festes majors) throughout the territory.

The new protocol replaces the one in force since 2019, which had become outdated for two reasons: it did not specifically incorporate the approach to LGBTI-phobic violence and did not reflect regulatory changes or the new framework documents that had emerged in this field. According to the approved text, the drafting was commissioned in January 2026 to the Fundación Salud y Comunidad, a commission that was explained to the county’s mayors during the mayors’ council on April 10.

An instrument to clarify the circuit of action

The protocol is presented as a practical, operational, and shared tool for the entire county, designed primarily for the protection of assaulted persons. It also incorporates prevention activities and measures, and aims to provide security to city councils in the management of this type of violence, as well as to technical care teams and the general population.

The County Council justifies the initiative based on the institutional responsibility of public administrations, which have the duty to act with due diligence in the face of sexual and LGBTI-phobic violence. With this commission, the county body provides city councils with an instrument that facilitates the assumption of responsibility and action in these situations.

Six months of work and 70 citizen responses

The preparation of the document was the result of six months of work involving several participatory processes:

• A driving team composed of interdepartmental technical staff from the Alt Urgell County Council, the Care for People Consortium, the Generalitat de Catalunya, and the La Seu d’Urgell City Council, with the participation of the Mossos d’Esquadra.
• An open survey to the public, specifically aimed at entities, commissions, and festival organizers, which obtained a total of 70 responses.
• Individual interviews with key agents of the county’s festive life: technical staff from the entity managing the purple points, members of festival commissions from different municipalities, and technical staff from the La Seu d’Urgell City Council.

Fifteen local festivals with a purple point

The 2026 summer campaign plans to install information, prevention, and response points for hate speech and sexist and LGBTI-phobic violence—known as “purple points”—in fifteen main festivals (festes majors) across the region. These spaces function as sites for support and safety, for the prevention of harassment, abuse, and sexual, sexist, racist, and LGBTI-phobic assaults in public spaces, as well as for guidance and action.

The municipalities where they will be installed are:

• Aravell, Arfa, Adrall, Alàs, and Coll de Nargó
• Oliana, Castellciutat, Tragó, and El Pla de Sant Tirs
• El Querforadat, Castellbó, Organyà, and Peramola
• Montferrer and La Seu d’Urgell

Legal framework and roadmap until 2031

The protocol is based on five regulations: Law 17/2020, of December 22, amending Law 5/2008 on the right of women to eradicate sexist violence; Organic Law 10/2022, for the comprehensive guarantee of sexual freedom; Law 13/2025, of December 29, on the rights of LGBTI people and the eradication of LGBTI-phobia; Law 19/2020, of December 30, on equal treatment and non-discrimination; and Law 17/2015, of July 21, on the effective equality of women and men.

The document establishes a roadmap from 2026 to 2031, with a common framework for action and actions structured across different levels of application. The Plenary’s agreements also provide for the publication of the approval in the Official Gazette of the Province of Lleida and on the notice board of the County Council, and the notification of the protocol to all town halls in the region. The text is signed in La Seu d’Urgell on October 19, 2026, by the president of the entity, Josefina Lladós Torrent.

The measure reaches readers as a homogeneous framework for a territory with main festivals spread across small municipalities where technical capacity is limited: the protocol unifies criteria, assigns responsibilities, and turns the protection of assaulted persons into a shared obligation between the County Council and the town halls.

Source: Official Gazette of the Province of Lleida, no. 203, October 23, 2026, Local Administration - County Councils, pp. 1-3 (official reference: BOP-2026_0_203_8763).