Epstein files allegations may amount to "crimes against humanity," UN experts claim

Geneva, Switzerland - Independent experts employed by the United States Human Rights Council said that allegations contained within the Epstein files may amount to "crimes against humanity."

Allegations contained within the Epstein files may amount to "crimes against humanity," according to experts employed by the UN.
Allegations contained within the Epstein files may amount to "crimes against humanity," according to experts employed by the UN.  © imago/ZUMA Press

The experts claimed that many of the crimes outlined in documents recently released by the Department of Justice showed a dehumanization of women and girls that demands numerous international criminal investigations.

According to the advice, the allegations found within the disclosures could amount to sexual slavery, reproductive violence, enforced disappearance, torture, inhuman and degrading treatment, and femicide.

Such claims amount to crimes against humanity under international criminal law because they were committed "as part of a widespread or systematic attack against a civilian population," a press release from the UN Human Rights Office of the High Commissioner declared on Monday.

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"These crimes were committed against a backdrop of supremacist beliefs, racism, corruption, extreme misogyny, and the commodification and dehumanization of women and girls from different parts of the world," the experts were cited as saying in the press release.

"The 'Epstein Files,' which are suggestive of the existence of a global criminal enterprise, have shocked the conscience of humanity and raised terrifying implications of the level of impunity for such crimes," they said.

President Donald Trump's DOJ on Saturday declared that all of the Epstein Files have been released, arguing that they have fulfilled their responsibility under the Epstein Transparency Act. These claims have been widely disputed, however.

A document dump in January revealed a wide range of associations between Epstein and high-ranking members of the administration, including substantive allegations against Trump himself.

"So grave is the scale, nature, systematic character, and transnational reach of these atrocities against women and girls that a number of them may reasonably meet the legal threshold of crimes against humanity," the experts said.

Cover photo: imago/ZUMA Press

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