Family background, education and early career ) Cramer's family on the paternal side likely originated from what is now
Germany and acquired the citizenship of the
Republic of Geneva in 1668. Her father
Louis Cramer was a
theatre director, who also became the president of the
Calvinist ecclesiastical court of the
Protestant Church of Geneva. Her mother, Eugénie Léonie Micheli, Cramer's maternal grandfather
Louis Micheli (1836-1888), who was a rich
agronomist and a
gentleman farmer, became a member of the ICRC in 1869, just six years after its founding, and served as its vice-president from 1876 until his death. After losing control of the major public offices in Geneva, his Patrician class turned to
banking and
philanthropic activities at the end of the 19th century, However, she did not practise the profession and instead turned her interest on researching
constitutional law and the
history of Switzerland, earning her
doctorate in that field. Her best known book became
Genève et les Suisses which she published in 1914 to commemorate the
centenary of Geneva joining the Swiss Confederation. It was supervised by Professor
Charles Borgeaud, who was one of her relatives. According to ICRC historian Daniel Palmieri, it was Cramer's idea to cope with the
big data about individual fates by introducing a system of
index cards linked to catalogues. Cramer also fundraised for the under-financed agency: in spring of 1916 she performed a play with a number of colleagues titled
Le Château historique! ("the historical palace!"), a
comedy in three acts by
Alexandre Bisson and
Julien Berr de Turique. Cramer played the
heroine Marguerite Baudoin. The performance raised some 3,000
Swiss francs. Between March and April 1917, Cramer officially became the first female delegate of the ICRC when she was sent on a mission to
Berlin,
Copenhagen, and
Stockholm. - recommended the appointment of Cramer as a member of the committee, which at the time was made up exclusively of men. Naville, who hailed from Geneva's second-oldest family, Her career as an academic was short-lived, and she took up new responsibilities at the ICRC before finishing her first semester as a lecturer. Despite the hesitations some of its members felt in allowing a woman to join its ranks, the Committee understood that such change would be inevitable, largely because the war had deeply altered people's perception of gender equality. As a result, Cramer became the first woman to become a member of the governing body of any
international organization, most notably during the
Russian Revolution and later as a deputy for
Fridtjof Nansen when he became the High Commissioner for Refugees of the
League of Nations. Frick-Cramer was made an honorary member, and continued to dedicate her activities to the development of
international humanitarian law: her focus became the extension of international conventions to protect both military and civil victims of war. She became one of the principal actors involved in the writing of the
1929 Geneva Convention about the treatment of prisoners of war. During a diplomatic conference in July of that year, Frick-Cramer was the only female expert participant and as such the first woman to co-draft a Geneva Convention. The treaty was considered a partial success as its implementation depended on the goodwill of the warring parties. She also played a key role in the "
Tokyo-project" which aimed to provide protection for civilians of "enemy" nations caught up in the territory of an opposing war party. Due to the emerging system of concentration camps in Nazi Germany, the ICRC decided in March 1935 to transform its working group for civilians into one for political prisoners. Frick-Cramer was a member of both the former and the latter.
Second World War Shortly after the beginning of the Second World War, the ICRC set up the
Central Agency for Prisoners of War. It was the successor of the IPWA and based on the 1929 Geneva Convention which Frick-Cramer had helped to create. In September 1939, she was once again elected as a regular member of the ICRC, as opposed to the honorary membership she held for the previous 17 years. and his successor Burckhardt to intervene on behalf of civilians held by Nazi Germany, especially in the concentration camps, but to no avail. Frick-Cramer continued to promote the idea of the "Tokyo-project" and submitted the text of a draft convention which would have merged the conventions protecting soldiers and civilians. Though it was turned down, the adoption of the
1949 Geneva Conventions was still«the conclusion of a long process in which she played a crucial role.» «The small grande dame» – as many called Frick-Cramer with great affection She was survived by her husband who died in 1981, her daughter Jacqueline and her three grandchildren. == Legacy ==