Current Affairs MCQs – Page 10 (Q91-100)

The United Nations officially recognizes six languages: Arabic, Chinese, English, French, Russian and Spanish, used across its formal meetings and documents at UN headquarters and other major offices. English and French serve as the UN Secretariat's working languages for day-to-day internal operations, while all six are used for official General Assembly and Security Council proceedings. Arabic was the most recent addition, adopted as an official language in 1973, decades after the UN's founding in 1945. Interpreters at the UN must be fluent in at least two of the six official languages besides their native tongue.

The UN Security Council has ten non-permanent members, elected by the General Assembly for two-year terms, alongside its five permanent, veto-wielding members, bringing the Council's total membership to 15. Non-permanent seats are distributed regionally to ensure geographic balance, with Africa, Asia-Pacific, Eastern Europe, Latin America and Western Europe each guaranteed a share of seats. Twelve is a tempting distractor because it is close to the real figure but overstates the actual number of rotating seats by two. Pakistan has served multiple terms as a non-permanent Security Council member, most recently being elected for the 2025-2026 term.

WHO stands for the World Health Organisation, the United Nations specialized agency responsible for international public health, established in 1948 and headquartered in Geneva, Switzerland. WHO coordinates responses to global health emergencies, sets international health regulations, and led the successful global campaign to eradicate smallpox, declared complete in 1980. The other listed options are invented near-matches designed to test careful reading of the acronym's precise wording. WHO played a defining global role during the COVID-19 pandemic, declaring it a Public Health Emergency of International Concern in January 2020.

UNICEF stands for the United Nations International Children's Emergency Fund, though it is now officially known simply as the United Nations Children's Fund, retaining the original acronym for continuity. It was established in December 1946 to provide emergency relief to children in countries devastated by World War II, later expanding its mission worldwide. The other listed options are invented near-matches designed to test careful reading of the organization's original full name. UNICEF was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 1965 and remains a leading advocate for children's rights, health and education globally.

The International Court of Justice, the principal judicial organ of the United Nations, is headquartered at the Peace Palace in The Hague, Netherlands, a city often described as the international city of peace and justice. The ICJ settles legal disputes between states and gives advisory opinions on international legal questions referred to it by UN organs and specialized agencies. Geneva, Strasbourg and Brussels are tempting distractors as other major European hubs for international bodies, with Strasbourg notably home to the separate European Court of Human Rights. The Peace Palace was funded by American philanthropist Andrew Carnegie and completed in 1913.

The International Court of Justice was established in 1946, replacing the Permanent Court of International Justice, which had operated under the League of Nations before World War II. It began functioning shortly after the United Nations itself was founded in 1945, becoming the UN's principal judicial body under the UN Charter. 1945 is a tempting distractor since that is when the UN was founded, one year before the ICJ actually began its operations. The ICJ is based at the Peace Palace in The Hague and should not be confused with the separate International Criminal Court, which prosecutes individuals rather than states.

The International Criminal Court is headquartered in The Hague, Netherlands, joining the International Court of Justice in a city widely regarded as a global center for international law and justice. The ICC prosecutes individuals for the most serious international crimes, including genocide, war crimes and crimes against humanity, unlike the ICJ, which settles disputes between states. Brussels, Vienna and Geneva are tempting distractors as other major European hubs for international organizations, but the ICC's headquarters has always been in The Hague. Unlike the ICJ, the ICC is not a UN body but an independent treaty-based court created by the Rome Statute.

The International Criminal Court came into being on July 1, 2002, when the Rome Statute, adopted at a diplomatic conference in Rome in 1998, formally entered into force after receiving enough ratifications. It was created as the world's first permanent international court capable of prosecuting individuals for genocide, war crimes, crimes against humanity and the crime of aggression. 1998 is a tempting distractor because that is when the founding Rome Statute was actually adopted, four years before the court itself began operating. The United States, Russia and China are notably not parties to the Rome Statute establishing the ICC.

INTERPOL stands for the International Criminal Police Organisation, a global body facilitating cooperation and information-sharing among police forces across its 196 member countries. Founded in 1923 and headquartered in Lyon, France, Interpol does not have its own agents with powers of arrest but instead helps coordinate and support national police forces. The other listed options are invented near-matches designed to test careful reading of the acronym's precise wording. Interpol is best known for its notice system, including the widely publicized Red Notice used to alert member countries to a wanted person's location.

The Shanghai Cooperation Organisation was founded in June 2001 in Shanghai, China, growing out of an earlier group called the Shanghai Five, which had been meeting since 1996 to resolve border and security issues among its members. Its founding members were China, Russia, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan and Uzbekistan, later joined by India and Pakistan as full members in 2017. 2005 is a tempting distractor as it falls within the SCO's early expansion period, when it began granting observer status to countries like Pakistan and India, well before their eventual full membership. The SCO focuses on regional security, counterterrorism and economic cooperation across Central and South Asia.