"A lot of countries have already ratified the ILO conventions but what is urgent now is their implementation," Indonesian president Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono said in his speech at the 100th ILO Conference here on Tuesday.
He said eight fundamental conventions of the ILO had to be implemented to assure that workers get social justice.
"Indonesia is the first Asian country to ratify the eight fundamental ILO conventions," he said.
President Yudhohono said he was optimistic the ratification would speed up and strengthen efforts for the protection of the country`s workers.
In his speech President Yudhoyono also raised the importance of protecting migrant workers in the domestic sector.
"We must support the ILO Convention on Decent Work for Domestic Workers which I believed will be adopted by the conference," he said.
Yudhoyono said the theme of migrant workers was very important because there are now around 150 million migrant workers across the world. These people are playing an important role in the current era of social justice, he said.
"We in Indonesia call them foreign exchange heroes because they have worked very hard and dedicated themselves to the welfare of their family at home," he said.
President Yudhoyono was optimistic the ILO convention could provide guidance for recipient countries to protect workers in the domestic sector.
"This is a very important issue for Indonesia because the relatively large portion of Indonesian migrant workers abroad are domestic workers," he said.
President Yudhoyono delivered his speech after Finland`s president Tarja Kaarina Halonen. His speech was later followed by that of German Chancellor Angela Merkel and Russian prime minister Vladimir Putin.
The theme of this conference is "Building a Future with Decent Work." (*)
Editor: Aditia Maruli Radja
Copyright © ANTARA 2011
