Epstein files allegations may amount to 'crimes against humanity': UN experts

(snip)

The group of experts, appointed by the U.N. Human Rights Council, said in a statement released Monday that the files signal “the existence of a global criminal enterprise” that engaged in the “systematic and large-scale sexual abuse, trafficking and exploitation” of women and girls.

“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,” they said.

“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 panel added.

Crimes against humanity are defined under international law as when certain acts are committed “as part of widespread or systematic attack directed against any civilian population.” These acts — which include rape, sexual slavery, and murder, among other offenses — differ from war crimes in that they do not require armed conflict and can occur in peaceful times, according to the International Committee of the Red Cross.

(snip)

https://thehill.com/policy/international/5743461-epstein-files-allegations-crimes-against-humanity-un/