ABSTRACT
When the last remaining servants of the League of Nations (LON), led by Sean Lester, its final Secretary General, arrived at the San Francisco conference in the summer of 1945, belatedly invited by the United States government, they were "given no role and only seats in the last row of the gallery". This chapter deals with individual petitioning, humanitarian relief and women's rights show how experts of varying sorts and varying success emerged in circulation between the central secretariats of the League and the UN, an evolving constellation of sub-agencies and an orbiting set of philanthropic foundations, and grass-roots activists. It focuses on the Liaison Committee of International Women's Organizations (LCIWO) and the Origins of an International Women's Convention similarly explores the role of the League and the UN in the contentious, multi-local development of expertise, this time in the service of women's rights. This introduction presents an overview of key concepts discussed in this book.
