Current Affairs Questions

Explanation :

Context: Recently, the U.S. has announced plans to reengage with the UN Human Rights Council that former President Donald Trump withdrew from almost three years ago.

Explanation:

• The United Nations Human Rights Council (UNHRC) was established by the UN General Assembly on 15 March, 2006 to replace the UN Commission on Human Rights.
• Headquartered in Geneva, Switzerland, the Council is made up of 47 United Nations Member States which are elected by the UN General Assembly.
• These members are elected yearly by the General Assembly for staggered three-year terms. Members are selected via the basis of equitable geographic rotation using the United Nations regional grouping system. Members are eligible for re-election for one additional term, after which they must relinquish their seat.
• The seats are distributed along the following lines:
  • 13 for the African Group
  • 13 for the Asia-Pacific Group
  • 6 for the Eastern European Group
  • 8 for the Latin American and Caribbean Group
  • 7 for the Western European and Others Group
• The UNHRC holds regular sessions three times a year, in March, June, and September.
• The UNHRC passes non-binding resolutions on human rights issues through a periodic review of all 193 UN member states called the Universal Periodic Review (UPR).
• The new mechanism is based on reports coming from different sources, one of them being contributions from non-governmental organisations (NGOs).
• The first cycle of the UPR took place between 2008 and 2011,[42] the second cycle between 2012 and 2016, and the third cycle began in 2017 and is expected to be completed in 2021.

Explanation :

• The non-OPEC countries which export crude oil are termed as OPEC+ countries.
• OPEC+ was born in 2017 with a deal to coordinate oil production among the countries in a bid to stabilize prices. Since then, the group has reached deals for members to voluntarily cut and ramp-up production in response to changes in global oil prices.
• Member countries include Azerbaijan, Bahrain, Brunei, Kazakhstan, Malaysia, Mexico, Oman, Russia, South Sudan and Sudan.

Explanation :

Context: The La Nina weather phenomenon is back in the central and eastern equatorial Pacific Ocean after nearly a decade’s absence, the World Meteorological Organization (WMO) said in its latest Global Seasonal update released on October 29, 2020.

El Nino-Southern Oscillation (ENSO)

• El Nino and La Nina are opposite phases of what is known as the El Nino-Southern Oscillation (ENSO) cycle.
• The ENSO cycle is a scientific term that describes the fluctuations in temperature between the ocean and atmosphere in the east-central Equatorial Pacific (approximately between the International Date Line and 120 degrees West).
• La Nina is sometimes referred to as the cold phase of ENSO and El Nino as the warm phase of ENSO.
• These deviations from normal surface temperatures can have large-scale impacts not only on ocean processes, but also on global weather and climate.
• El Nino and La Nina episodes typically last nine to 12 months, but some prolonged events may last for years.
• While their frequency can be quite irregular, El Nino and La Nina events occur on average every two to seven years.
• Typically, El Nino occurs more frequently than La Nina.

El Nino

• El Nino means ‘The Little Boy’, or ‘Christ Child’ in Spanish. El Nino was originally recognized by fishermen off the coast of South America in the 1600s, with the appearance of unusually warm water in the Pacific Ocean.
• The name was chosen based on the time of year (around December) during which these warm waters events tended to occur.
• It refers to the large-scale ocean-atmosphere climate interaction linked to a periodic warming in sea surface temperatures across the central and east-central Equatorial Pacific.
• Typical El Nino effects are likely to develop over North America during the upcoming winter season.
• Those include warmer-than-average temperatures over western and central Canada, and over the western and northern United States. Wetter-than-average conditions are likely over portions of the U.S. Gulf Coast and Florida, while drier-than-average conditions can be expected in the Ohio Valley and the Pacific Northwest.
• The presence of El Nino can significantly influence weather patterns, ocean conditions, and marine fisheries across large portions of the globe for an extended period of time.

La Nina

• La Nina means ‘The Little Girl’ in Spanish. La Nina is also sometimes called ‘El Viejo’, ‘anti-El Nino’, or simply ‘a cold event’.
• La Nina episodes represent periods of below-average sea surface temperatures across the east-central Equatorial Pacific.
• The effect of La Nina impacts on global climate tend to be opposite those of El Nino.
• In the Tropics, ocean temperature variations in La Nina also tend to be opposite to those of El Nino.
• During a La Nina year, winter temperatures are warmer than normal in the Southeast and cooler than normal in the Northwest.

Explanation :

• The Convention on Biological Diversity was opened for signature at the Earth Summit in Rio de Janeiro on 5 June 1992 and entered into force on 29 December 1993.
• It is a key document regarding sustainable development. It comes under the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP).
• It has two supplementary agreements, the Cartagena Protocol and Nagoya Protocol.

Main Goals

• Conservation of biological diversity.
• Sustainable use of its components.
• Fair and equitable sharing of benefits arising from genetic resources.

Members

• 196 countries are a party to the CBD.
• India is also a party to the Convention. India ratified it in 1994.The Biological Diversity Act, 2002 was enacted for giving effect to the provisions of the Convention.

Cartagena Protocol

• The Cartagena Protocol on Biosafety to the Convention on Biological Diversity is an international treaty governing the movements of living modified organisms (LMOs) resulting from modern biotechnology from one country to another.
• It was adopted on 29 January 2000 as a supplementary agreement to the CBD and entered into force on 11 September 2003.

Nagoya Protocol

• The Nagoya Protocol on Access to Genetic Resources and the Fair and Equitable Sharing of Benefits Arising from their Utilization (ABS) to the Convention on Biological Diversity is another supplementary agreement to the CBD.
• It provides a transparent legal framework for the effective implementation of one of the three objectives of the CBD.
• It was adopted on 29 October 2010 in Nagoya, Japan and entered into force on 12 October 2014.

Explanation :

• Blue Flag is an international certification of environmental properties and cleanliness on beaches.
• A ‘Blue Flag’ beach provides hygienic and clean bathing water, basic infrastructure to tourists and sustainable development in the area.
• This Certification is accorded by an international agency Foundation for Environment Education(FEE), Denmark based on 33 stringent criteria in four major heads i.e.
• -Environmental Education and Information,
• -Bathing Water Quality,
• -Environment Management and Conservation and
• -Safety and Services in the beaches.
• The programme originally started in France in 1985. It was presented to the FEE in 1987. It then became the European Blue Flag.
• In 2001, when South Africa became the first country outside of Europe to join the programme, the initiative changed its name to International Blue Flag.
• Spain has the largest number of 566 Blue Flag beaches while Greece and France have 515 and 395 such Blue Flag beaches respectively.
• Chandrabhaga beach located on the Konark coast of Odisha is the first beach in the country to receive Blue Flag Certification.

Explanation :

• Qatar has brought about a change in its labour laws. The reforms, which were announced by the Emir of Qatar in October 2019, were signed into law recently.

Reforms Announced

• The first reform has abolished the unjustified ‘Kafala system’ or requirement for a “no objection certificate” that migrant workers needed to get from their employers before changing jobs. Now, workers will have to serve a one-month notice period if they have worked for less than two years and notice period of two months if they have worked longer.
• The second reform involves increasing the minimum wage by 25 percent to $274 or 1000 Qatari riyals and an additional 300 QAR for food and 500 QAR for accommodation in case not provided by the company. These reforms are now applicable to workers of all nationalities and in all sectors, including domestic workers who were previously excluded.

Need for Reform

• Qatar is hosting the 2022 FIFA World Cup and in the run-up to the sporting event that is viewed by more than half of the global population, the country has faced flak for its labour laws, seen by many as being exploitative of migrant labourers.

About Kafala System

• It is a system that lays down obligations in the treatment and protection of foreign ‘guests’. Kafala means ‘to guarantee’ or ‘to take care of’ in Arabic.
• Under this, a migrant worker’s immigration status is legally bound to an individual employer or sponsor (‘kafeel’) during the contract period.
• The migrant worker cannot enter the country, transfer employment nor leave the country for any reason without first obtaining explicit written permission from the kafeel.

Origin

• The Kafala system began in the 1950s when several Middle East countries started hiring foreign workers to accelerate development following the discovery of oil.

Countries Practicing Kafala System

• It is being practiced in the Gulf Cooperation Council member countries of Bahrain, Kuwait, Oman, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates, and also in the Arab states of Jordan and Lebanon.

Explanation :

• Togo has become the first African country to eliminate sleeping sickness as a public health problem.
• According to the WHO, sleeping sickness is currently found in 36 sub-Saharan African countries.

Sleeping Sickness(African Trypanosomiasis)

• It is caused by infection with the protozoa Trypanosoma brucei.
• African trypanosomiasis is transmitted to humans by bites of tsetse fly (found only in rural Africa).
• Early symptoms include fever, headaches, joint pains and itching.
• Later stages may include behavioral changes, confusion and poor coordination.
• Treatment involves drugs to kill the parasites.

Togo

• Togo is a country in West Africa bordered by Ghana to the west, Benin to the east and Burkina Faso to the north.
• The country extends south to the Gulf of Guinea, where its capital Lome is located.
• It is a tropical, sub-Saharan nation, whose economy depends highly on agriculture, with a climate that provides good growing seasons.

Explanation :

• The Baltic Nations, also known as the Baltic countries, Baltic republics, Baltic kingdom, or simply the Baltics, is a geopolitical term, typically used to group the three sovereign states in Northern Europe on the eastern coast of the Baltic Sea: Estonia, Latvia, and Lithuania.
• The term is not used in the context of cultural areas, national identity, or language, because while the majority of people in Latvia and Lithuania are Baltic people, the majority in Estonia are Finnic.
• The three countries do not form an official union, but engage in intergovernmental and parliamentary cooperation.
• The most important areas of cooperation between the three countries are foreign and security policy, defence, energy, and transportation.
• All three countries are members of NATO, the Eurozone, the OECD, and the European Union.
• All three are classified as high-income economies by the World Bank and maintain a very high Human Development Index.
• For 2020-21, Estonia has been elected as a non-permanent member of the United Nations Security Council.

Explanation :

• The ISA is an Indian initiative that was launched by the Prime Minister of India and the President of France on 30th November 2015 in Paris, France on the side-lines of the Conference of the Parties (COP-21), with 121 solar resource rich countries lying fully or partially between the Tropic of Cancer and Tropic of Capricorn as prospective members.
• The overarching objective of the ISA is to collectively address key common challenges to the scaling up of solar energy in ISA member countries.
• The alliance is a treaty-based inter-governmental organization. Countries that do not fall within the Tropics can join the alliance and enjoy all benefits as other members, with the exception of voting rights.
• After the United Nations, it is the largest grouping of states world-wide.
• When the ISA Framework Agreement entered into force on December 6th, 2017, ISA formally became a de-jure treaty based International Intergovernmental Organization, headquartered at Gurugram (Haryana, India).

Explanation :

• Mediterranean Sea, an intercontinental sea that stretches from the Atlantic Ocean on the west to Asia on the east and separates Europe from Africa.
• It has often been called the incubator of Western civilization.
• It connects to the Atlantic Ocean by the Strait of Gibraltar (known in Homer’s writings as the “Pillars of Hercules“) in the west.
• It connects to the Sea of Marmara and the Black Sea, by the Straits of the Dardanelles and the Bosporus respectively, in the east.
• The 163 km (101 mi) long artificial Suez Canal in the southeast connects the Mediterranean Sea to the Red Sea.