A Guatemalan weaver teaches the delegation about her art. More photos

In August, Karen Smith Rotabi, Ph.D. ’04; Denise Gammonley, Ph.D. ‘98; and Melissa Johnson, MSW ‘02, traveled to Guatemala as delegates for the Guatemala Human Rights Commission (GHRC) to explore violence against women, including femicide.

The work included hearing testimonies of violence survivors and presenting findings to the U.S. government. For example, they heard from Rosa Franco, who has testified for the Interamerican Human Rights Court in the only case of femicide ever received by the organization. Franco shared her experiences with the delegation and again gave testimony about her adolescent daughter Maria’s violent death at the hands of narcotics traffickers in Guatemala City. This case underscored the concept of femicide, which is a political act of violence perpetuated by men against women simply because they are women.

Guatemala is one of the worst examples in the world of this crime. The violent acts frequently include torture and ritualistic abuses with women’s bodies being left in public locations as a message to the community and striking fear, thereby making it a form of terrorism.

The delegation also visited Survivors Foundation, an organized focused on both advocacy and treatment of violence survivors. This important work includes the hunger protests of three women who allege that their children were kidnapped for illegal adoptions.

Other testimony included perspectives of midwives, social workers engaged in domestic violence shelter work, and a visit to a community radio station in the highlands where the delegation participated in a local radio show. At the end of the delegation trip, the group presented findings to the U.S. Embassy and USAID officials, who were briefed on the current situation in Guatemala in addition to a presentation of GHRC recommendations. Rotabi presented on the climate of impunity, in which only approximately 2% of all cases of violence against women are prosecuted in Guatemala.

This human rights work is part of Gammonley and Rotabi’s collaborative work on global social work and ethical cross-cultural engagement with a human rights perspective. This particular delegation is an example of human rights work in action which is a grassroots and global community building approach as envisioned by the Guatemalan Human Rights Commission. 

Rotabi’s involvement in this delegation is one of a number of activities that she has been involved with in the nation for over 15 years and she has a number of related publications. Her photo-journal about the delegation can be viewed here. A detailed review of delegation activities can be found on the group's blog.

Rotabi is an assistant professor of social work at Virginia Commonwealth University and  Gammonley is an associate professor of social work at University of Central Florida. Johnson is field director for the National Committee for Responsive Philanthropy in Washington, D.C.

By Karen Smith Rotabi, Ph.D. ’04
Posted 10/7/09