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”.
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’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’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”.