Jakarta – President Abdurrachman Wahid has signed a law ratifying a convention of the International Labour Organization (ILO) on immediate prevention of abuse of child workers.

Wahid described the convention as important for Indonesia where, he said, there were still many cases of child workers "inhumanly" abused against the convention of the United Nations.

He said the convention was important for all nations committed to reducing child workers in the future. He said Indonesia was determined to support the ILO programme in seeking to protect child workers from abuse. "The ratification of the convention should mark the start of concrete steps to bring an end to problems besetting child workers," he said.

Karitapola, an ILO executive, said Indonesia was the first country in Asia and the sixth in the world to ratify all eight basic conventions of the ILO.