القاعدة ذات الصلة
Spain
Practice Relating to Rule 16. Target Verification
Spain’s LOAC Manual (1996) states: “The military character of the objective shall be verified by reconnaissance and target identification.”
Spain, Orientaciones. El Derecho de los Conflictos Armados, Publicación OR7-004, 2 Tomos, aprobado por el Estado Mayor del Ejército, División de Operaciones, 18 March 1996, Vol. I, § 10.8.e.(2); see also §§ 10.8.f.(1) and 2.3.b.(1).
Spain’s LOAC Manual (2007) states that “those who plan or order an attack must do everything feasible to verify that the objectives that they are targeting are not civilians, civilian property or persons or objects subject to special protection”.
Spain, Orientaciones. El Derecho de los Conflictos Armados, Tomo 1, Publicación OR7–004, (Edición Segunda), Mando de Adiestramiento y Doctrina, Dirección de Doctrina, Orgánica y Materiales, 2 November 2007, § 4.3; see also §§ 2.3.b.(1) and 4.5.a.(1).(a).
In 2010, in the Couso case, which concerned the killing of a Spanish journalist in Baghdad on 8 April 2003 by troops of the United States of America, the Criminal Chamber of Spain’s Supreme Court referred to norms of IHL relevant to the case under review, including Article 57(2)(a)(i) of the 1977 Additional Protocol I.
Spain, Supreme Court, Couso case, Judgment, 13 July 2010, Section II(II), Sexto, § 2, p. 15.
