The Women and War Project unit has been conducting a study of the impact of armed conflict on women and the normative and operational responses to their needs by the ICRC in carrying out its activities. This study will be published in 2001 and forms the basis for the implementation of a specific pledge on women and war made by the ICRC at the 27th International Conference of the Red Cross and Red Crescent (Geneva, 1999) for four years from the year 2000. In that pledge, the ICRC undertook to increase its promotion both of the protection accorded to women by international humanitarian law and of the prohibition of sexual violence. It will also endeavour to ensure that all its protection, health and assistance activities appropriately meet the needs of women war victims in order to alleviate their plight.