This article is published in association with United Nations.
An independent UN human rights expert has welcomed ongoing proceedings in the United States to extradite “manosphere” bloggers Andrew and Tristan Tate to the United Kingdom, calling the case an important step towards accountability for serious allegations of violence against women and girls.
The proceedings “offer renewed hope that justice may finally be achieved through effective international cooperation,” said Reem Alsalem, Special Rapporteur on violence against women and girls.
She noted that the action taken comes after years in which women’s testimonies and experiences had been ignored or dismissed by law enforcement and prosecutorial authorities.
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Call for justice
“Given the scale of the alleged offences, and the Tate brothers’ global influence in promoting misogyny and harmful models of masculinity, it is urgent and imperative that they face justice,” she said.
The Tate brothers – dual British-US nationals and former professional kickboxers-turned-social media influencers – were arrested in Miami, Florida, on 18 July following an extradition request from the UK.
They remain in custody in the US while challenging the extradition request, where they face 59 criminal charges, including rape, sexual assault, facilitating trafficking for sexual exploitation, assault, and offences relating to indecent images of a child and extreme pornography.
Separate criminal proceedings remain ongoing in Romania concerning allegations including human trafficking, including the trafficking of minors.
‘No one should be above the law’
Ms. Alsalem urged the Governments of Romania, the UK and the US to ensure that the Tate brothers face justice.
“All too often, perpetrators of violence against women exploit delays, fragmented jurisdictional responses and their wealth, power or influential public profile to evade accountability,” she said, stressing that “no one should be above the law, regardless of their status, influence or international reach.”
She also called for the justice process to be expanded to include those that aided, abetted and profited from the Tate brothers’ criminal enterprise of grooming, exploiting and abusing women and girls, rather than focusing only on individual criminal responsibility.
On 4 March, Ms. Alsalem transmitted information she had received to the Governments of Romania and the United Kingdom – with copies to the United States – regarding the poor handling of allegations of rape, strangulation, intimidation and retaliation made by a woman who alleged that she had been sexually assaulted by Andrew Tate in Romania in 2018.
Special Rapporteurs are independent experts appointed by the Human Rights Council in Geneva. They are not United Nations staff and do not receive a salary for their work.
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