Gustave Moynier

He was also active in around 40 additional charitable organizations and groups involved in tasks from improving conditions for prison inmates to caring for orphans.

Moynier showed great interest in the realization of Dunant's ideas for the creation of a voluntary care organization for the assistance of the wounded in battle and opened a discussion about the book at the assembly of the Geneva Society for Public Welfare.

The additional members of the commission, with Moynier as chairman, were Dunant, the doctors Louis Appia and Théodore Maunoir and the army general Guillaume-Henri Dufour.

The key point of dispute was Dunant's idea to grant neutrality to wounded soldiers and medical staff in order to protect them.

Dunant, however, was able to persuade powerful political and military figures in Europe of his ideas, and with the first Geneva Convention in 1864 had some success toward their implementation.

While not proven, it is probable that Moynier used his influence to prevent Dunant, who from then on lived in rather poor conditions, from receiving financial assistance from his various supporters in Europe.