Women’s Conference Survivor Spokane Woman Describes Trip To U.N. Conference Tonight

Donna Hanson arrived at her Beijing hotel last month at 9:30 p.m., exhausted from two days of traveling.

Then the hotel clerk politely told her the Chinese government had canceled her room reservations.

This was the same government that required Hanson to fax proof that she had hotel reservations before authorities would issue her a visa to attend the United Nations Conference on Women.

That’s just one example of the chaotic, bizarre atmosphere that prevailed throughout the international conference and the accompanying forum for nongovernmental agencies.

“Apparently my visa said I could only stay in a four-star hotel, not a five-star hotel,” she explained. Hanson begged and pleaded with the hotel staff before she convinced them to let her stay just one night.

The next day, the staff helped her find a room at another hotel.

Hanson will discuss her experiences at 7 tonight, at Whitworth University’s Music Recital Hall. The lecture is free and open to the public. Hanson is the secretary for social ministries for the Roman Catholic Diocese of Spokane.

“I’m delighted I was there and I’m glad to be back,” she said. “There were so many times this could have been a disaster for me, personally.”

On top of finding herself without a hotel, Hanson and most everyone else at the conference had to stand in line during a downpour and slog through muck and mud to attend some of the workshops.

She did manage to get into most of the sessions at the non-governmental forum, even though there were 30,000 people vying for 1,200 seats at the main sessions.

She also attended the United Nations conference as a voting delegate for Caritas International, a Rome-based umbrella organization for Catholic relief groups and charitable organizations.

The conference drew international attention because of its goal of improving the living conditions for women and girls worldwide and its location - a country with a reputation for abusing the human rights of women and girls.

The non-governmental forum was held in Huairou, more than an hour’s ride from Beijing, usually on a rickety old bus, Hanson said.

That’s where most of the headlines about chaos and government intimidation originated.

The building erected to hold most of the workshops wasn’t completed, Hanson said. There was plastic around windows, unfinished walls and no accessibility for people in wheelchairs.

“In this country you could not even occupy a building in that condition,” she said.

Other workshops were held in large tents. The third day, a tropical storm collapsed many of the tents.

Several of the hotels built to hold the visitors were in similar condition, she said. Once Hanson found a new hotel, she took in a friend whose room was covered with construction dust and didn’t have running water.

“I think the Chinese government created their own problems,” Hanson said.

After the first week, Hanson switched gears and attended the official United Nations Conference in Beijing.

“The NGO forum was jean skirts, casual shoes and a lot of networking. The UN conference was heels and suits. Two totally different atmospheres,” she said. “And you need both to get things done.”

By the end of the conference the United Nations had adopted a document that will establish a universal standard of rights for women throughout the world. The provisions include the right to education, health care and political access.

“I’ll be happy if some of it is implemented,” Hanson said.

Hanson said she was impressed by First Lady Hillary Clinton and by Mary Ann Glendon, the Harvard law professor who headed the Vatican delegation.

Both women stuck to the issues under great scrutiny, Hanson said. “I was never more proud to be Catholic, to be an American and to be a woman.”

, DataTimes ILLUSTRATION: Color Photo