The United Nations has raised serious global concern after newly released files connected to Jeffrey Epstein suggested that the scale of abuse described could legally qualify as crimes against humanity. Independent human rights experts linked to the United Nations Human Rights Council stated that the allegations show a systematic, organized, and transnational pattern of abuse involving the exploitation of women and girls over many years.
According to the experts, the documents released by the US Justice Department point to a deeply rooted network fueled by racism, corruption, extreme misogyny, and supremacist ideologies. They emphasized that the acts described go beyond individual crimes and reflect a broader culture of commodification and dehumanisation of victims. The experts stressed that the scale, severity, and global reach of these acts may meet the international legal threshold for crimes against humanity.
More than 1,200 victims have been identified so far in the files, raising urgent questions about how such abuse was allowed to continue unchecked for decades. The experts called for a fully independent, impartial, and transparent investigation, not only into the crimes themselves but also into the institutional failures that enabled them. They also criticized serious redaction errors, which reportedly exposed sensitive victim information, potentially retraumatising survivors.
A law passed by the United States Congress in November mandates the public release of all Epstein related files. However, UN experts warned that partial disclosures and limited investigations have left survivors feeling ignored and slighted by institutions meant to protect them.
The newly released records also reveal Epstein’s extensive connections with powerful figures in politics, finance, academia, and business, both before and after his 2008 conviction for prostitution related offenses involving a minor. Epstein was arrested again in 2019 on federal sex trafficking charges but was later found dead in his jail cell. His death was officially ruled a suicide, though questions and public scrutiny continue.
