Spain
Practice Relating to Rule 149. Responsibility for Violations of International Humanitarian Law
Spain’s LOAC Manual (1996), referring to Article 91 of the 1977 Additional Protocol I, provides: “The State is responsible for all acts committed by persons who are part of its Armed Forces.”
In another provision, referring to Article 3 of the 1907 Hague Convention (IV) and Article 91 of the 1977 Additional Protocol I, the manual states that a belligerent party “will be held responsible for the acts committed by persons who are part of its armed forces”.
Spain’s LOAC Manual (2007) states that “the State is responsible for all acts committed by the members of its armed forces”.
The Report on the Practice of Spain refers to a number of bilateral treaties concluded in the second part of the 19th century between Spain and South American republics which include clauses concerning responsibility in armed conflict. The report states:
All these treaties allow either Government of the States Parties to invoke the other Government’s responsibility for damages suffered in the territory of the latter and caused by rebels in the case of insurrection, civil war, or sedition or by savage tribes or hordes, if the authorities of the country can be shown … to have been at fault or negligence.