JAKARTA (Yosefardi) – The National Commission of Human Rights (Komnas HAM) takes a stand to endorse presidential candidate Joko “Jokowi” Widodo as a response to public criticism on the record of human rights violation committed by Jokowi’s opponent, Prabowo Subianto.

As quoted by Kompas.com, Komnas HAM Chairman Hafid Abbas revealed on Thursday (July 3) that the Commission has completed its assessment on the vision, mission, and programs of both presidential candidates.

According to Hafid, Komnas HAM concluded that Jokowi’s vision, mission and programs are more dedicated to human rights protection and explicitly have a commitment to settling serious human rights violation in the past.

Hafid said Komnas HAM has criticized Prabowo’s vision, mission and programs which does not explicitly show a commitment to address various cases of serious human rights violation in the past.

Manager Nasution, another Komnas HAM official, added that the condition of expiration on the serious human rights violations does not apply, so therefore, whoever becomes the new President of the Republic has an obligation to address the cases. (haryantos@yosedardi.biz)