Pillage
The systematic and violent appropriation of movable public or private property belonging to the enemy State, to civilians, wounded, sick or shipwrecked persons, or to prisoners of war. Pillage is a war crime. When movable property belonging to civilians, wounded, sick or shipwrecked persons, prisoners of war or the dead on the battlefield is removed by non-violent means, the term “spoliation” is sometimes used. Spoliation is prohibited.
OUTLINE
LEGAL SOURCE
prohibition of
GCI, 15/1 (see ICRC updated Commentary)
GCII, 18/1 (see ICRC updated Commentary)
GCIV, 16/2 and 33/2
CASES
- Senegal, Exploitation of Natural Resources
- United States Military Tribunal at Nuremberg, United States v. Alfried Krupp et al.
- ICJ, Democratic Republic of the Congo/Uganda, Armed Activities on the Territory of the Congo (Paras. 240-245, 250)
- Georgia/Russia, Human Rights Watch’s Report on the Conflict in South Ossetia (Paras. 75, 79, 82-83, 87-89)
- Georgia/Russia, Independent International Fact-Finding Mission on the Conflict in South Ossetia (Paras. 94-100)
- Democratic Republic of Congo, Involvement of MONUSCO
- Mali, Conduct of Hostilities
- Central African Republic, Coup d’Etat
- The armed conflict in Syria
- Syria, Report by UN Commission of Inquiry (March 2017)
- Switzerland: Gold Looting Case
- ICC, Confirmation of Charges against LRA Leader
- International Criminal Court, Trial Judgment in the Case of the Prosecutor V. Jean-Pierre Bemba Gombo
- Iraq, Crimes by Militia Groups
- Colombia, Special Jurisdiction for Peace, Crimes against the Environment in Cauca
BIBLIOGRAPHIC RESOURCE
STEWART James G., Corporate War Crimes: Prosecuting the Pillage of Natural Resources, New York, The Open Society Institute, 2010, 157 pp.