UNITED NATIONS, May 8: UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan opened the first UN children’s summit on Wednesday, chiding “the grown-ups” of the world for failing “deplorably” to uphold the right of every child to grow up free of poverty and war and receive a quality education.

Addressing some 60 world leaders and 3000 representatives from over 180 countries, Annan said young people in every country have a right to expect that the promises they made “to build a world fit for children” are kept.

Annan told the delegates “To the adults in this room, I would say: let us not make children pay for our failures any more,” adding “We know from experience that for every dollar invested in the development of a child, there is a seven dollar return for all society.”

About 400 children representing various countries would attend, who will be joined by leading figures from business, the arts, and religion, from Microsoft’s Bill Gates to East Timorese Nobel laureate Bishop Carlos X. Belo and actor Roger Moore.

Pakistan will be represented by Federal Minister Atiya Inayatullah, and Social Worker Abdul Sattar Edhi.

On the eve of the children summit the United States came under harsh criticism for being one of only two countries in the world — the second being Somalia — that has not ratified the Convention on the Rights of the Child.

At a press conference on Tuesday advocates for the Child Rights Caucus, made up over 100 national and international nongovernmental organizations (NGOS) from around the world, accused the United States of being a major obstacle to agreement on two of the most controversial issues still being negotiated related to the Convention.

The United States has tried to sideline the Convention on the Rights of the Child as the global standard for protecting the rights of children, said Jo Becker of Human Rights Watch, adding that, with the exception of the United States and Somalia, 191 countries had ratified the Convention since 1989, making it the most widely ratified treaty in history.

Ms Becker said the United States had also similarly tried to roll back international agreements regarding the right of adolescents to sexual and reproductive health, education and service.