France
Practice Relating to Rule 111. Protection of the Wounded, Sick and Shipwrecked against Pillage and Ill-Treatment
France’s Disciplinary Regulations (1975), as amended, states: “It is prohibited to plunder the … wounded”.
France’s Code of Military Justice (1982) provides for the punishment of “any individual, military or not, who, in the area of operation of a force or a unit, … plunders a wounded, sick [or] shipwrecked … person”.
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 wounded, sick, shipwrecked or dead person, is punished with ten years’ imprisonment;
2. With a view to plundering, subjects a wounded, sick or shipwrecked person to violence that deteriorates their condition, is punished with life 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”.