This is the News in Brief from the United Nations.

Russia reduced Genocide Convention ‘to confetti’, Ukraine tells ICJ

Ukraine addressed the UN’s highest court on Monday where it rejected Russia’s claims that genocide has been committed in eastern oblasts as a “grotesque lie”.

The International Court of Justice (ICJ) also heard urgent appeals from Kyiv’s representatives to halt Russia’s offensive, with claims that Russia had reduced the 1948 Genocide Convention to “confetti”.

The development came on day 12 of the crisis in Ukraine, where cities have been surrounded by Russian forces and more than 1.5 million refugees have fled the country.

In opening remarks to the world court, Anton Korynevych, Permanent Representative of the President of Ukraine, insisted that the court had a “responsibility” to intervene.

“Let us settle our dispute like civilized nations. Lay down your arms and put forward your evidence. Ukraine respects this court and follows its orders. Russia must as well.”

Russia, which was absent from the proceedings, was due to respond to Ukraine’s request on Tuesday.

Sudan: UN rights chief condemns ‘sharp reversal of achievements’

UN rights chief Michelle Bachelet on Monday rounded on what she called the “sharp reversal of achievements” in Sudan, after last October’s military coup.

Speaking at the Human Rights Council in Geneva, the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights said that the military takeover had “again plunged the country into profound crisis” and eroded two years of reform, after the overthrow of long-time dictator, Omar al-Bashir.

Thousands of people have continued to take to the streets in peaceful protests but they are still being met with live ammunition, in clear breach of international law, Ms. Bachelet said.

She noted that by late last week, credible medical sources reported that 85 people had been killed so far following “disproportionate use of force by security forces during protests”, including one woman and 11 children.

Greater investment in care could create almost 300 million jobs

Almost 300 million jobs could be created by plugging gaps in care services, the UN labour agency, ILO, said on Monday.

According to the International Labour Organization, hundreds of millions of people who look after their families do not have adequate social protection.

This included nearly 650 million women whose maternity cover does not provide 14 weeks minimum time off work, on at least two-thirds of their previous earnings.

“Paid maternity leave or protection is a universal human and labour right”, the ILO report insisted.

But it found that 82 of the 185 countries that it surveyed did not meet these standards - and that at the current pace of reform, “it will take at least 46 years to achieve minimum maternity leave rights” in all countries.

For men, more than 1.2 billion live in countries with no entitlement to paternity leave.

And where there is paternity leave, “it remains short”, the ILO said, pointing to a global average of nine days only.

Transforming care policies and making them available to all would cost $5.4 trillion globally, the UN agency calculated, although some of this could be offset by an increase in tax revenue from the additional earnings and employment.

Daniel Johnson, UN News.