Karen Smith Rotabi

Name: Karen Smith Rotabi

Karen Smith Rotabi is Assistant Professor of Social Work at Virginia Commonwealth University. She has lived and worked in Central America, including training Peace Corps Volunteers for a child health promotion program in rural Guatemala. More recently, she participated as a delegate in the 2009 Guatemala Human Rights Commission delegation on Violence Against Women. Openly criticizing the intercountry adoption system in Guatemala, prior to major reforms, became a personal commitment after hearing from many sources about the grave human rights abuses of birth mothers, including one young woman who managed to cease the illegal adoption of her daughter after her highly publicized case of child kidnapping and DNA-fraud. It should be noted that Rotabi has herself worked with families seeking to adopt and her interest is in developing ethical systems which prevent child sales. Her leadership in this area of practice includes involvement of USA-implementation of the Hague Convention on Intercountry Adoption. Committed to global social work and human rights, these themes are found throughout her publications, including analysis of attempted child theft and trafficking in the aftermath of Haiti and this publication can be found in the May issue of the Journal of Global Social Work Practice at www.globalsocialwork.org. See her websites www.StopFemicide.com and www.HagueEvaluation.com to learn more about her advocacy work.