It is of great importance and acute urgency that the Declaration of Undertaking to Apply the Geneva Conventions of 1949 and Protocol I of 1977, promulgated and issued by the National Democratic Front of the Philippines (NDFP) on July 5, 1996, is once more published and distributed more widely than ever before, together with related documents.
The Declaration of Undertaking asserts and makes clear that all the revolutionary forces and people represented by the NDFP within and outside the framework of peace negotiations with the Government of the Republic of the Philippines (GRP) have a just cause and are well-grounded morally, politically and legally in engaging the GRP in a civil war as a legitimate national liberation movement, that they have the status of co- belligerent under international law and that they assume rights and responsibilities under the Geneva Conventions and its protocols.
The Geneva Conventions of 1949 as the basic international instrument on the rules of armed conflicts seek to ameliorate the conditions of the wounded and sick of armed forces, the humane treatment of prisoners of war and the protection of civilian persons in time of war. Protocol I further expands these rules on the protection of civilian persons and populations in international armed conflicts while Protocol II aims to further protect victims of non-international armed conflicts.