The Epstein files: Rights experts demand accountability, call for probe into trafficking allegations

The Human Rights Council-appointed experts also issued a general warning over the “continuing violence of patriarchal power systems” revealed in the files, which the US Department of Justice began releasing late last year. 

The massive collection of documents, photos, flight logs and other items related to investigations into the activities of deceased New York-based financier and child sex offender Jeffrey Epstein have been the subject of significant legal and political debate in recent months in Washington DC and beyond. 

Transparent investigation call

“We are gravely concerned by the credible allegations in the ‘Epstein files’ of systemic trafficking of young women and girls for purposes of sexual exploitation and call for a full and transparent investigation,” the two experts said in a statement.

The allegations implicate senior politicians, public figures, diplomats, global business leaders and leading academics, and describe the widespread trafficking of girls and young women across multiple international borders over decades.

The situation highlights the entrenched discrimination and violence of patriarchal systems of power and associated failures of accountability, said Siobhán Mullally, Special Rapporteur on trafficking in persons, especially women and children, and the five members of the Working Group on discrimination against women and girls.

The experts emphasised that the trafficking of children and young women is a serious criminal offence and a grave violation of human rights, and they voiced deep concern over the “wholly inadequate” response by national governments and law enforcement authorities.

Culture of impunity

“The failure to ensure accountability perpetuates a culture of impunity that disproportionately harms women and girls and undermines the promise of equal protection under international human rights law,” the independent experts’ statement said.

Moreover, trafficking of children for sexual exploitation destroys childhoods and has devastating long term consequences for the victims. 

They reminded governments of their obligation to prevent trafficking, protect victims and ensure access to justice and effective remedies, including compensation. 

Support for victims

“Victims and survivors must be at the centre of effective trauma-informed and gender-sensitive responses to trafficking in persons,” the statement said.

“They must guarantee medical assistance, including reproductive and sexual health services, psychosocial assistance and long-term social inclusion and recovery measures.”

Action ‘long overdue’

With global attention around the case waning, the experts called for concrete action, accountability and urgent measures to ensure access to justice, as well as reparations, guarantees of non-repetition and transparency.

“States bear the obligation to act, and that obligation is long overdue,” they said.

All independently appointed experts receive their mandates from the UN Human Rights Council in Geneva. They are not UN staff and do not receive payment for their work.