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The world will gather at UN Headquarters in New York for the Commission on the Status of Women (CSW70)– the UN’ largest annual forum dedicated to gender equality and women’s rights. What happens here influences laws, policies, funding and accountability across countries and generations. This year’s focus is clear: rights, justice and action for all women and girls. The CSW70 will take place March 9-19. Credit: United NationsNEW YORK, March 9 (IPS) - International Women’s Day 2026 (IWD 2026), which was commemorated March 8, under the theme, “Rights. Justice. Action. For ALL Women and Girls“, calls for action to dismantle all barriers to equal justice: discriminatory laws, weak legal protections, and harmful practices and social norms that erode the rights of women and girls. It demands an end to systemic violence and misogyny, including calls for justice for Epstein survivors.
The independent experts, who serve in their individual capacities under mandates from the UN Human Rights Council, warned that the alleged acts documented in the ‘Epstein Files’ provide disturbing and credible evidence of widespread, systematic sexual abuse, trafficking, and exploitation of women and girls.
The UN experts stated that, “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.” They said, “No one is too wealthy or too powerful to be above the law.”
Article 7 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights proclaims that “All are equal before the law and are entitled without any discrimination to equal protection of the law.” However, no nation has closed the legal gaps between men and women.
While we are told that women now hold more legal rights than at any point in history, 2026 data reveals a devastating reality: women globally hold only 64 per cent of the legal rights of men.
Thus, the global crisis of women’s safety is not a failure of individual morality; it is a result of structural barriers. For survivors of systemic exploitation, the deepest betrayal lies not in the absence of laws, but in the complicity embedded within the very architecture of gender.
Architecture of Betrayal
We must call out the hypocrisy reinforcing this architecture: the “Socialite-Feminist Paradox.” The Epstein scandal exposed a troubling contradiction within elite social networks. Some influential figures build public personas on the rhetoric of “empowerment of women and girls,” yet privately maintain ties to predatory networks.
This contradiction becomes most striking when individuals who publicly champion gender equality such as high-profile participants in initiatives like HeForShe, are linked to Epstein’s social orbit.
When prominent advocates attach their “feminist” brands to the orbit of known predators, they serve as reputation shields, signaling legitimacy and safety to the outside world. Young women drawn by promises of empowerment trust these figures. They become victims of the very networks those reputations shield.
Within this gender architecture, such actors become the interior designers of impunity, dressing up a house of horrors to resemble a palace of progress.
Support Beams of Hypocrisy
The architecture of betrayal extends to the highest levels of global governance. Jeffrey Epstein maintained a vast network of elite social and financial contacts, including politicians, business leaders, and royalty, exposing how predatory networks can intersect with influential institutions.
Recent scrutiny has intensified following the release of documents connected to the Epstein investigation by the United States Department of Justice, which revealed troubling communications between Emirati diplomat Hind Al-Owais and Epstein.
In early 2026, former Norwegian prime minister Thorbjørn Jagland also faced investigation over alleged “aggravated corruption” and extensive email ties to Epstein, while Mette-Marit, Crown Princess of Norway, publicly apologized for maintaining a friendship with him after his 2008 conviction.
Figures such as Terje Rød-Larsen, former Norwegian diplomat and International Peace Institute President, likewise operated within the same elite UN-linked and international policy circles Epstein sought to access.
These are not just “lapses in judgment”; they are the structural supports that allow predatory systems to persist behind the mask of elite influence and advocacy.
Architecture of Complicity
While individuals failed, prestigious institutions provided the foundation. Major banks, Ivy League universities such as Harvard and MIT, and elite think tanks accepted Epstein’s wealth—often described as “blood money”—in exchange for social legitimacy.
These were not “bystanders”; they were the infrastructure of the abuse. By accepting donations from a known predator, these institutions provided the social cover that allowed the grooming of vulnerable girls to continue.
They signaled to the world – and to the victims – that a billionaire’s endowment was more valuable than a young woman’s safety.
Justice in Flawed Architecture
The ultimate instrument of elite impunity is the statute of limitations. Within this gendered architecture of power, justice is not defeated by evidence but by the calendar. Predators rely on the legal expiration of trauma, counting on time to erode memory, courage, and consequence.
The UN experts urged US Authorities that statutes of limitations preventing prosecution of grave crimes attributed to the Epstein criminal enterprise must be lifted.
As of February 2026, new legislation like Virginia’s Law ((named after Virginia Giuffre) has been introduced to remove these time limits for survivors of sexual abuse and trafficking.
Path Towards Accountability
The survivors of the Epstein network have broken the silence. This IWD 2026, we must break the system that allowed that silence to exist.
We know what happened. Now, we must act; our demands must be absolute:
We must urge governments to use the 70th session of the Commission on the Status of Women (CSW70) in March 2026 to commit to tangible, measurable progress toward closing the global legal protection gap for survivors.
We must abolish statutes of limitations to ensure that time does not wash away the crimes of the powerful.
We do not want “rights” that can be bought off by a billionaire’s legal team, or “justice” that stops at a non-disclosure agreement.
We must push for legislation that bans “secret” settlements which protect unnamed co-conspirators in trafficking cases. No one – regardless of their political or social status – should be “un-indictable.”
We must stop platforming “rights advocates” who have not fully accounted for their ties to predatory networks. Influence must be earned through integrity, not proximity to power.
We must strip away the “advocate” title from anyone who traded the safety of girls for the social or financial perks of an elite boys’ club.
We must demand that any organization – be it a bank, an Ivy League University, a laboratory, or a non-profit – that knowingly benefits from the proceeds of exploitation be held legally and financially accountable as a co-conspirator.
We must institute legal requirements for institutions to disclose the sources of large private endowments, with strict “vetting clauses” regarding human rights records.
We must redirect assets seized from trafficking and exploitation networks into survivor-led healing funds and legal aid for marginalized women.
We must ensure that justice is not a privilege; it is a fundamental human right that cannot be bought, silenced, or erased by time. We demand action to ensure that ALL women – regardless of the status of their abuser – are equally protected under the law.
The theme of IWD 2026 “Rights. Justice. Action.” is not a request for a seat at the table; it is a demand to dismantle the table where elite impunity is served.
Shihana Mohamed, a Sri Lankan national, is President of Asia Global Network and a US Public Voices Fellow with The OpEd Project and Equality Now on advancing the rights of women and girls. She is also a founding member and Coordinator of the United Nations Asia Network for Diversity and Inclusion (UN-ANDI). She is a dedicated human rights activist and a strong advocate for gender equality and the advancement of women.
IPS UN Bureau
© Inter Press Service (20260309092847) — All Rights Reserved. Original source: Inter Press Service
