Related Rule
France
Practice Relating to Rule 113. Treatment of the Dead
France’s Disciplinary Regulations (1975), as amended, provides that, under international conventions, “it is prohibited to despoil the dead”.
France, Règlement de Discipline Générale dans les Armées, Decree No. 75-675 of 28 July 1975, replacing Decree No. 66-749, completed by Decree of 11 October 1978, implemented by Instruction No. 52000/DEF/C/5 of 10 December 1979, and modified by Decree of 12 July 1982, Ministère de la Défense, Etat-Major de l’Armée de Terre, Bureau Emploi, Article 9 bis.
Under France’s Code of Military Justice (1982), “any individual, military or not, who, in the area of operation of a force or a unit, … plunders a … dead person” commits a punishable offence.
France, Code of Military Justice, 1982, Article 428.
France’s Code of Military Justice (2006) states:
Pillage
The offence by any person, military or not, who, in the area of operation of a force or a unit:
1. Plunders a … dead person, is punished with ten years’ imprisonment.
France, Code of Military Justice, 2006, Article L. 322-6.
France’s Penal Code (1992), as amended in 2010, states in its section on war crimes common to both international and non-international armed conflicts: “Unless they are justified by military necessity, the following offences committed against a person protected by the law of armed conflict constitute … war crimes: … [s]tealing [or] extorting … objects”.
France, Penal Code, 1992, as amended in 2010, Article 461-16.
