Spain
Practice Relating to Rule 112. Search for and Collection of the Dead
Spain’s LOAC Manual (1996) states: “The belligerent parties must, at all times and particularly after an engagement, take all possible measures to search for and collect … the dead in action”.
The manual also states: “The dead bodies not buried, cremated or buried at sea because of the circumstances, shall be evacuated”.
Spain’s LOAC Manual (2007) states:
At all times, and particularly after an engagement, the parties to a conflict must take all possible measures to search for and collect those … killed during the fighting.
Local agreements can be made between the parties to the conflict for this purpose.
Spain’s Royal Ordinances for the Armed Forces (2009) states: “Whenever circumstances for the accomplishment of the mission and the security of the unit permit, [members of the armed forces] must take, without delay, all possible measures to … search for the dead”.
In 2010, in its report to the UN General Assembly on the status of the 1977 Additional Protocols, Spain stated:
Article 85 entitled “Principle of Humanity”, contained in Title IV on Operations [of the Royal Ordinances for the Armed Forces (2009)], clearly embodies the spirit of the [1949] Geneva Convention and its [1977] Additional Protocols, as it provides that “[the] … conduct [of members of the armed forces] in any conflict or military operation must conform to the applicable rules of the international treaties on international humanitarian law to which Spain is a party”.
That is further developed in Chapter VI on Ethics in Operations, which goes into specific duties under international humanitarian law … the search for the … dead.