The fourth annual Human Trafficking Conference will be held on the campus of UNC Pembroke on March 12.

The conference will be held from 9 a.m. to 1 p.m. at the University Center Annex. It is free and open to the public.

Human trafficking is the fastest growing crime in the world. The International Labor Organization estimates that nearly 21,000,000 people–mostly young women and children–are subjected to modern-day slavery across the globe, including forced labor and sex trafficking.

This year the conference attendees will listen to victims who have survived human trafficking.  

There will be a video presentation from Ambassador John Cotton Richmond. He is the U.S. Ambassador-at-Large to Monitor and Combat Trafficking Persons and leads the Department of State’s Office to Monitor and Combat Trafficking in Persons.

The keynote speaker will be Retired Detective Bill Woolf Jr., former director of the Northern Virginia Human Trafficking Task Force and Gang Investigation Unit. Woolf is a national expert in sex trafficking and the identification of victims.

Other speakers include Barbara Jean Wilson, executive coordinator in the legal division of Freddie Mac. Her book, Mute But Now I Speak, reveals how she overcame the pain of childhood sex abuse and human trafficking.

Miriam Cobb is the founder of Empty Frames Initiative and a representative to the NC Coalition Against Human Trafficking’s board of directors.

A representative from A Safe Place, a Wilmington non-profit that assists victims of commercial sexual exploitation and domestic trafficking, will also speak.

The event is hosted by UNCP’s Department of Sociology and Criminal Justice. For more information, contact Judith Paparozzi, event coordinator, at judith.paparozzi@uncp.edu.