The history of the Geneva Conventions – the most important treaties concerning armed conflict ever formulated – is populated by ‘great men.’ The archetypical drafter remains a white bourgeois man from Geneva, such as Jean Pictet. What this obscures, however, is the significant role played by women in the formulation of this body of international law. In seeking to remedy this oversight, my contribution recovers Marguerite Frick-Cramer, the first female drafter of the Conventions, and her international legal thought, emphasizing how she shaped key legal principles and practice on the global stage.
Dr. Boyd van Dijk is a McKenzie Fellow at the Melbourne Law School.