Women and war . Thousands of women all over the world suffer the traumas of war - widowed, displaced, detained, separated from loved ones, victims of violence and injury. Usually innocent civilians caught in the crossfire, women very often show resourcefulness and resilience in coping with the loss and destruction of their lives.
Women also take an active part in war as combatants.
International humanitarian law provides extensive protection for women in war, whether as civilians or captured combatants. If these rules were better observed, the suffering of women in war would be much less.