Geneva is a city in the country of Switzerland that is considered on par in terms of influence with other ‘global cities’ such as London, England. In 1815, Mary Shelly made an expedition throughout much of the European continent, and one of the major destination spots that she visited was Geneva, which can be seen in her later novel Frankenstein, where she makes much of the novel place. Geneva is interesting not only because of this but also because of its general reputation for being an extremely peaceful place. Not to mention the existence of the Geneva Convention, though those were drafted much, much later than the publication of Frankenstein, in the aftermath of the Second World War. It’s somewhere that you would not expect atrocity to be presenting itself, in other words. Much of the tragedy in the novel happens in the borders of Geneva, which is a bit of irony that you would only pick up on had you known the cultural climate of the area.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Geneva
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Geneva_Conventions