WASHINGTON (dpa-AFX) - UN independent human rights experts have called for justice and accountability for young women and girls who were trafficked systematically as part of allegations contained in the so-called Epstein files.
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 U.S. borders.
'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.
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.
The UN rights experts' call for inquiry comes a week after First Lady Melania Trump urged Congress to provide the women who have been victimized by Jeffrey Epstein with a public hearing specifically centered on the survivors of his sex trafficking.
In a surprise announcement at the White House last Thursday, she denied links to Epstein, and told reporters that any such claims with the American financier and convicted sex offender 'need to end today.'
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