Though slavery has long been abolished in the U.S., some societies around the world still have not reached this benchmark.

On Thursday, people gathered at the UC as the Veritas Forum and the Christian Legal Society presented an inspirational conversation focusing on human trafficking.

The conference titled “Let Justice Roll: Human Trafficking and Making Justice Matter,” focused on horrific situations involving slavery, prostitution and children molestation.

Philip Langford, director of operations for the International Justice Mission in Africa, spoke about the organization and its recent situations dealing in a small town in India. One involved a mother, Shanti, and her 12-year-old daughter, who were slaves to a man, who, on numerous occasions, raped the daughter and beat the mother. Langford said the doctors would advise Shanti to “try not to leave her (daughter) alone with the owner.”

Another situation involved a brothel, containing underage girls, which an oppressor would use as prostitutes. Langford showed pictures that a few IFM undercover agents captured while in the brothel, revealing the pain of one girl in particular, Mala. Over the course of six months, with photographic and video proof of the goings-on of the brothel, their case was overturned five times by the same high-level police officer, who was under the pay of the brothel’s oppressor.

“There is no one in between the oppressed and the oppressor,” Langford said.

However, Langford ends both stories revealing that both Shanti and Mala are free from their owners, and it is now “impossible to find an underage girl to sleep with” in their town.

The fight for justice and slavery is far from over, though.

Statistics presented at the conference stated 27 million people are under modern slavery, 80 percent of whom are women and girls, and 70 percent of them end up in the sex industry.

Rosalind I. J. Hackett, Department of Religious Studies head and founder of the Jazz for Justice Project, and Karla McKanders, associate professor of law, shared their thoughts.

Hackett started JJP, which raises awareness and support for the power of music and the arts in northern Uganda, taking undergraduate students to northern Uganda to help the local citizens. Hackett chose to focus on art and music with the project because they were very neglected in the area.