This is the News in Brief from the United Nations.

Human Rights Council votes to hold urgent debate on Ukraine crisis

The scheduled work of the UN Human Rights Council was halted temporarily on Monday as Member States voted on a request from Ukraine to hold an urgent debate on the crisis, following Russia’s military operation.

Ukraine Ambassador to the UN in Geneva, Yevheniia Filipenko, described the death and suffering caused across her country, amid reports that talks were under way between Ukraine and Russia at the Belorussian border.

UN rights chief Michelle Bachelet said that Russia’s “military attack on Ukraine” had already killed scores of people and put countless other lives at risk.

“Most of these civilians were killed by explosive weapons with a wide impact area, including shelling from heavy artillery and multi-launch rocket systems, and airstrikes. The real figures are, I fear, considerably higher.”

The Ukraine delegation called for the Council to set up an international human rights probe into Russian move.

Russian Ambassador Gennady Gatilov opposed it, countering with Western inaction at the “targeted destruction” of people in eastern Ukraine.

The debate is scheduled to take place on Thursday.

Refugee numbers pass 500,000

Meanwhile, hundreds of thousands of Ukrainians have sought shelter abroad, as the country’s neighbours continue to keep their borders open, the UN refugee agency, UNHCR, said on Monday.

Here’s UNHCR spokesperson Shabia Mantoo:

“Our colleagues are speaking to new arrivals, they’re reporting gruelling journeys that have spanned the course of a couple of days…there are many women and children among them and they’re exhausted.”

At one crossing point into Poland, thousands of cars have formed a line stretching back 14 kilometres into Ukraine and one new arrival told UNHCR that she had spent three days trying to reach safety from Kiev – a journey that would normally take just seven hours.

IPCC report ‘damning indictment of failed global leadership on climate’

UN scientists have delivered a stark warning about the impact of climate change on people and the planet.

They painted a grim picture of the effects of global warming over the next two decades, including ecosystem collapse, deadly heatwaves and floods and other “unavoidable …climate hazards.”

According to the latest report from the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), children today could experience a four to five-fold increase in extreme weather events during their lifetimes.

The UN Secretary-General echoed the experts’ concerns at the report launch in Geneva:

“I have seen many scientific reports in my time, but nothing like this. Today’s IPCC report is an atlas of human suffering and a damning indictment of failed climate leadership.”

The report projects that children in parts of Asia will be particularly exposed to losses in coastal settlements and infrastructure caused by sea level rise. By 2050, more than a billion people living in low-lying coastal cities and settlements globally will be at risk. And South America will face increasing water scarcity.

Daniel Johnson, UN News