World leaders should put children at centre of development agendas - UNICEF

World leaders must put children at the heart of their development agendas if countries are to achieve all their development goals, the head of the United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF) said today.

"Although the world has made tremendous progress since 1989 to see that children's rights are universally accepted and realized, we are not there yet," Executive Director Carol Bellamy said in a message on the fourteenth anniversary of the international adoption of the Convention on the Rights of the Child.

"Children are still forced to serve as soldiers, children orphaned by AIDS are abandoned by society, millions of children die from preventable diseases - as do their mothers. The rights of these marginalized and forgotten children need to be our highest priority if we really want to achieve the social and economic goals we've set."

The goals she referred to were the Millennium Development Goals adopted at a UN summit in 2000. They are quantifiable targets designed to end extreme poverty and hunger, give all children a good, basic education, empower women, combat several serious diseases, ensure environmental sustainability and develop a global partnership for development.

"The generation of children being born today are the ones who need us to achieve the goals we have set for ourselves," she said.

Among UNICEF's efforts to reach the goals are helping governments to provide an expanded set of immunizations against childhood diseases, ensure that all children get a quality basic education, raise awareness about HIV/AIDS, protect children from abuse and discrimination and provide survival services, Ms. Bellamy said.