Source: https://ihl-databases.icrc.org/customary-ihl/rus/docs/v2_cou_gb_rule113
Timestamp: 2020-03-31 17:39:55
Document Index: 526576441

Matched Legal Cases: ['§ 380', '§ 626', '§ 15', '§ 7', '§ 15', '§ 380', '§ 636', '§ 3', '§ 15', '§ 7', '§ 7', '§ 7']

The UK Military Manual (1958) states: “The dead must be protected against … maltreatment.”
United Kingdom, The Law of War on Land being Part III of the Manual of Military Law, The War Office, HMSO, 1958, § 380.
The manual further states that “maltreatment of dead bodies” is a war crime.
United Kingdom, The Law of War on Land being Part III of the Manual of Military Law, The War Office, HMSO, 1958, § 626(b).
The UK LOAC Pamphlet (1981) states: “The dead must not be … mutilated.”
United Kingdom, The Law of Armed Conflict, D/DAT/13/35/66, Army Code 71130 (Revised 1981), Ministry of Defence, prepared under the Direction of The Chief of the General Staff, 1981, Annex A, p. 47, § 15.
The UK LOAC Manual (2004) provides that the dead must be protected against maltreatment and that the mutilation of dead bodies is a war crime. The manual refers to this as a “well-established rule of customary international law”.
United Kingdom, The Manual of the Law of Armed Conflict, Ministry of Defence, 1 July 2004, § 7.31 and footnote 72.
In its chapter on internal armed conflict, the manual states: “The dead must not be … ill-treated.”
United Kingdom, The Manual of the Law of Armed Conflict, Ministry of Defence, 1 July 2004, § 15.29.1.
Under the UK ICC Act (2001), it is a punishable offence to commit a war crime as defined in Article 8(2)(b)(xxi) and (c)(ii) of the 1998 ICC Statute.
In 2003, in reply to a written question in the House of Lords, the UK Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State, Ministry of Defence, wrote: “The Deployed Operating Instructions issued to all United Kingdom military units state that enemy dead are to be treated the same as UK military dead.”
United Kingdom, House of Lords, Written answer by the Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Defence, Hansard, 8 September 2003, Vol. 652, Written Answers, col. WA40.
The UK Military Manual (1958) provides that “the dead must be protected against pillage”, specifying that “this is a well-established rule of customary international law”. It adds: “Belligerents must at all times, and particularly after an engagement, take all possible measures … to prevent [the dead] … being despoiled.”
United Kingdom, The Law of War on Land being Part III of the Manual of Military Law, The War Office, HMSO, 1958, §§ 380 and 381.
A special class of war crime is that sometimes known as “marauding”. This consists of ranging over battlefields and following advancing or retreating armies in quest of loot, robbing … and plundering the dead – all acts done not as a means of carrying on the war but for private gain. Nevertheless, such acts are treated as violations of the law of war. Those who commit them, whether civilians who have never been lawful combatants, or persons who have belonged to a military unit, an organised resistance movement or a levée en masse, and have deserted and so ceased to be lawful combatants, are liable to be punished as war criminals. They may be tried and sentenced by the courts of either belligerent.
United Kingdom, The Law of War on Land being Part III of the Manual of Military Law, The War Office, HMSO, 1958, § 636.
The UK LOAC Pamphlet (1981) provides: “Combatants are required to … prevent [the dead] being despoiled.”
United Kingdom, The Law of Armed Conflict, D/DAT/13/35/66, Army Code 71130 (Revised 1981), Ministry of Defence, prepared under the Direction of The Chief of the General Staff, 1981, Section 6, p. 22, § 3; see also Annex A, p. 47, § 15.
The UK LOAC Manual (2004) provides that the dead must be protected against pillage and that the looting of their property is a war crime.
United Kingdom, The Manual of the Law of Armed Conflict, Ministry of Defence, 1 July 2004, § 7.31.
The manual refers to this as a “well-established rule of customary international law”.
United Kingdom, The Manual of the Law of Armed Conflict, Ministry of Defence, 1 July 2004, § 7.31, footnote 72, and § 7.34.
In its chapter on internal armed conflict, the manual states: “The dead must not be despoiled.”
With regard to internal armed conflicts in which the 1977 Additional Protocol II is applicable, the manual specifies: “Whenever circumstances permit, and particularly after an engagement, all possible measures shall be taken without delay … to … prevent [the dead] being despoiled”.
(a) steals from, or with intent to steal searches, the person of anyone killed … in the course of warlike operations, or killed … in the course of operations undertaken by Her Majesty’s forces for the preservation of law and order or otherwise in aid of the civil authorities …
shall be guilty of looting and liable, on conviction by court-martial, to imprisonment or any less punishment provided by this Act.
A training video on IHL produced by the UK Ministry of Defence illustrates the rule that “stealing from a dead soldier is illegal and also a court martial offence”.
United Kingdom, Ministry of Defence, Training Video: The Geneva Conventions, 1986, Report on UK Practice, 1997, Chapter 2.3.