Switzerland
Practice Relating to Rule 116. Accounting for the Dead
Switzerland’s Basic Military Manual (1987) provides: “No corpse shall be buried or cremated without an examination, if possible medical, to certify the death and establish the identity of the deceased.”
Switzerland’s Aide-Memoire on the Ten Basic Rules of the Law of Armed Conflict (2005) states: “I recover and identify wounded, sick, shipwrecked and dead persons without discrimination as soon as the combat situation allows or the superior orders such.”
Switzerland’s Regulation on Legal Bases for Conduct during an Engagement (2005) states: “The deaths of prisoners must be reported immediately to the superior and a detailed report established.”
Switzerland’s Basic Military Manual (1987) provides that graves shall be “respected and marked with a distinctive sign” and “properly maintained and marked”.
Switzerland’s Basic Military Manual (1987) provides: “Half of the double identity disc, or the whole disc if single, shall remain on the body.”
The manual further states: “All elements helping to identify the … dead enemy … shall be recorded and communicated without delay to the Official Information Office.”
The information to be collected includes, for instance, the date and place of death, indications concerning the death and all other information on the identity card or the half of a double identity disc.