This is the News in Brief from the United Nations.

Ukraine rights probe condemns destruction of energy and transportation grids

A top Human Rights Council-appointed probe into potential rights abuses linked to Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, outlined on Friday the “devastating” impact of the war on the country’s children.

After its latest official visit to Ukraine, the Commission of Inquiry on Ukraine expressed deep concern that threats to the rights and lives of youngsters were “constantly multiplying”.

Schools have been destroyed or demolished after nine months of war, and ensuring access to education is also proving very difficult in areas where Russian-backed troops have pulled back, such as Kharkiv and Kherson, the commissioners said.

In a statement the fact-finding mission’s three Commissioners also explained that they had “devoted significant attention” to the destruction of civilian infrastructure in Ukraine – in particular, its energy and transportation grids.

“Both are preconditions for accessing rights, and civilian infrastructure is protected by international humanitarian law,” they said in a statement.

They added that they intended to examine the issue “in detail” and would return to it in their report to the Human Rights Council next March.

Dramatic increase in Andaman Sea crossings, warns UNHCR

An alert now from the UN Refugee Agency, UNHCR, about a dramatic increase in the number of people attempting to cross the Andaman Sea, from Bangladesh and Myanmar.

The Southeast Asia waterway is one of the deadliest in the world and more than 1,900 people have already made the journey since January year - six times more than in 2020.

With more, here’s UNHCR spokesperson Shabia Mantoo:

“UNHCR warns that attempts at these journeys are exposing people to grave risks and fatal consequences. Tragically, 119 people have been reported dead or missing on these journeys, this year alone.”

Most of those risking their lives are Rohingya refugees, who fled Myanmar in their hundreds of thousands in 2017, to escape military persecution.

In an appeal for help from Governments in the region, UNHCR said that the most recent arrivals included more than 200 people in North Aceh, Indonesia, where the authorities allowed them to disembark and provided shelter.

In 2016, Asia-Pacific governments pledged to do more to prevent people dying on such journeys, after 5,000 men, women and children were abandoned by people-smugglers in the Andaman Sea, and left adrift, starving and sick, for months.

Global food prices overall hold steady in November: FAO

To the global cost-of-living crisis and some reassuring news from the UN Food and Agriculture Organization - FAO - that the cost of many key foodstuffs remained “largely steady” last month.

Latest data from FAO’s Food Price Index found that world cereal prices fell by 1.3 per cent in November – although they remain more than six times higher than 12 months ago.

Wheat and maize also traded more cheaply last month, partly influenced by the extension of the Black Sea Grain Initiative.

But international rice prices moved up by 2.3 per cent, FAO said, which is as much as vegetable oil increased, after seven consecutive months of decline.

Sugar also rose by more than five per cent in November, owing to harvest delays in key producing countries, and India’s decision to lower its export quota.

Daniel Johnson, UN News.