Political Science Test - 21

The correct answer is Option 1.

Key Points

• Tutsi is an ethnic group of probable Nilotic origin, whose members live within Rwanda and Burundi. 
• The Tutsi formed the traditional aristocratic minority in both countries, constituting about 9 percent and 14 percent of the population, respectively. The Tutsis’ numbers in Rwanda were greatly reduced by a government-inspired genocidal campaign against them in 1994, however.
• Historically, The Tutsi retained their dominant position over the Hutu in Rwanda until 1961, when the monarchy was overthrown. In 1994, in the midst of a military campaign by Tutsi exiles to retake Rwanda, the Hutu-dominated government there instigated genocidal massacres of hundreds of thousands of Tutsi.
• This did not prevent the Tutsi exiles’ army from overrunning the country soon afterward and ousting the Hutu regime. In Burundi, by contrast, the Tutsi managed to keep control of the government in the face of periodic Hutu revolts.
• In 1972 an unsuccessful Hutu rebellion in Burundi was suppressed by the government at a cost of 100,000 lives, most of them Hutu.

The correct answer is Option 2.

Key Points

• The Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty (START) I was signed July 31, 1991, by the United States and the Soviet Union. This was the first treaty that required U.S. and Soviet/Russian reductions of strategic nuclear weapons. It was indispensable in creating a framework that ensured predictability and stability for deep reductions.
• In December 1991, the Soviet Union dissolved, leaving four independent states in possession of strategic nuclear weapons: Russia, Belarus, Ukraine, and Kazakhstan. This caused a delay in the entry into force of the treaty. On May 23, 1992, the United States and the four nuclear-capable successor states to the Soviet Union signed the Lisbon Protocol, which made all five nations party to the START I agreement. 
• START I entered into force Dec. 5, 1994, when the five treaty parties exchanged instruments of ratification in Budapest. 

The correct answer is Option 1.

Key Points

• Osama bin Laden founded al-Qaeda during the latter stages of the Soviet-Afghan War with the goal of waging global jihad.
• Since its founding in 1988, al-Qaeda has played a role in innumerable terrorist attacks, and is most notoriously responsible for the multiple attacks on the United States on September 11, 2001.
• The 9/11 terror attacks—the deadliest ever on American soil—left nearly 3,000 people dead and provoked the United States to wage war against al-Qaeda in the group’s home bases in Afghanistan, Pakistan, and other sanctuaries worldwide.
• Since then, the group has established five major regional affiliates pledging their official allegiance to al-Qaeda: in the Arabian Peninsula, North Africa, East Africa, Syria, and the Indian subcontinent. 

The correct answer is option 1.

Key Points

• The 9/11 attacks were a series of airline hijackings and suicide attacks committed in 2001 by 19 militants associated with the Islamic extremist group al-Qaeda against targets in the United States, the deadliest terrorist attacks on American soil in U.S. history.
• The attacks against New York City and Washington, D.C., caused extensive death and destruction and triggered an enormous U.S. effort to combat terrorism. Some 2,750 people were killed in New York, 184 at the Pentagon, and 40 in Pennsylvania (where one of the hijacked planes crashed after the passengers attempted to retake the plane); all 19 terrorists died (see Researcher’s Note: September 11 attacks).
• Police and fire departments in New York were especially hard-hit: hundreds had rushed to the scene of the attacks, and more than 400 police officers and firefighters were killed.

The correct answer is Option 4.

Key Points

• In responding to the threat of war, a government has three basic choices: to surrender; to prevent the other side from attacking by promising to raise the costs of war to an unacceptable level; and to defend itself when war actually breaks out so as to deny the attacking country its objectives and to turn back or defeat the attacking forces altogether.
• Governments may choose to surrender when actually confronted by war, but they will not advertise this as the policy of the country.
• Therefore, security policy is concerned with preventing war, which is called deterrence, and with limiting or ending war, which is called defense. Traditional security policy has a third component called the balance of power.
• When countries look around them, they see that some countries are bigger and stronger. This is a clue to who might be a threat in the future. For instance, a neighboring country may not say it is preparing for attack. There may be no obvious reason for attack. But the fact that this country is very powerful is a sign that at some point in the future it may choose to be aggressive.
• Governments are, therefore, very sensitive to the balance of power between their country and other countries.
• They do work hard to maintain a favourable balance of power with other countries, especially those close by, those with whom they have differences, or with those they have had conflicts in the past. A good part of maintaining a balance of power is to build up one’s military power, although economic and technological power are also important since they are the basis for military power.

The correct answer is Option 1.

Key Points

• The UN Security Council has primary responsibility for the maintenance of international peace and security. It has 15 Members, and each Member has one vote. Under the Charter of the United Nations, all Member States are obligated to comply with Council decisions.
• The Security Council originally consisted of 11 members—five permanent members (the Republic of China [Taiwan], France, the Soviet Union, the United Kingdom, and the United States) and six nonpermanent members elected by the UN General Assembly for two-year terms.
• An amendment to the UN Charter in 1965 increased council membership to 15, including the original five permanent members and 10 nonpermanent members.
• Among the permanent members, the People’s Republic of China replaced the Republic of China in 1971, and the Russian Federation succeeded the Soviet Union in 1991.
• The nonpermanent members are generally chosen to achieve equitable representation among geographic regions, with five members coming from Africa or Asia, one from eastern Europe, two from Latin America, and two from western Europe or other areas.
• Five of the 10 nonpermanent members are elected each year by the General Assembly for two-year terms, and five retire each year. The presidency is held by each member in rotation for a period of one month.

The correct answer is Option 1.

Key Points

• ​​​​​​Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR), foundational document of international human rights law.
• It has been referred to as humanity’s Magna Carta by Eleanor Roosevelt, who chaired the United Nations (UN) Commission on Human Rights that was responsible for the drafting of the document.
• After minor changes it was adopted unanimously—though with abstentions from the Belorussian Soviet Socialist Republic (SSR), Czechoslovakia, Poland, Saudi Arabia, South Africa, the Soviet Union, the Ukrainian SSR, and Yugoslavia—by the UN General Assembly on December 10, 1948 (now celebrated annually as Human Rights Day), as a “common standard of achievement for all peoples and all nations.”
• The French jurist René Cassin was originally recognized as the principal author of the UDHR.

The correct answer is Option 3.

Key Points

• The National Human Rights Commission (NHRC) of India was established on 12 October, 1993.
• The statute under which it is established is the Protection of Human Rights Act (PHRA), 1993 as amended by the Protection of Human Rights (Amendment) Act, 2006.
• The Commission consists of a Chairperson, five full-time Members and seven deemed Members. The statute lays down qualifications for the appointment of the Chairperson and Members of the Commission.
• The commission reports its annual report to the Central and state governments.

Appointment of NHRC members

• A Selection Committee will recommend the candidates to the President for the appointment. Hence statement 3 is incorrect.
• The Selection Committee includes:
  • Prime Minister (Chairman)
  • Speaker of Lok Sabha
  • Union Home Minister
  • Deputy Chairman of Rajya Sabha
  • Leaders of the Opposition in both Houses of the Parliament.
• Some limitations of NHRC are as follows:
  • ​The Recommendations made by the NHRC are not binding.
  • Violation of Human rights by private parties cannot be considered under NHRC Jurisdiction.
  • NHRC doesn’t have the power to penalize the authorities that don’t implement its recommended orders.

The correct answer is Option 4.

Key Points

• The National Human Rights Commission (NHRC) of India was established on 12 October, 1993.
• The statute under which it is established is the Protection of Human Rights Act (PHRA), 1993 as amended by the Protection of Human Rights (Amendment) Act, 2006.
• The Commission consists of a Chairperson, five full-time Members and seven deemed Members. The statute lays down qualifications for the appointment of the Chairperson and Members of the Commission.
• The commission reports its annual report to the Central and state governments.

Appointment of NHRC members

• A Selection Committee will recommend the candidates to the President for the appointment. Hence statement 3 is incorrect.
• The Selection Committee includes:
  • Prime Minister (Chairman)
  • Speaker of Lok Sabha
  • Union Home Minister
  • Deputy Chairman of Rajya Sabha
  • Leaders of the Opposition in both Houses of the Parliament.
• Some limitations of NHRC are as follows:
  • ​The Recommendations made by the NHRC are not binding. Hence it is only a recommendatory body.
  • Violation of Human rights by private parties cannot be considered under NHRC Jurisdiction.
  • NHRC doesn’t have the power to penalize the authorities that don’t implement its recommended orders.

The correct answer is France.

Key Points

• Declaration of the Rights of Man and of the Citizen, French Declaration des Droits de l’Homme et du Citoyen, one of the basic charters of human liberties, containing the principles that inspired the French Revolution.
• Its 17 articles, adopted between August 20 and August 26, 1789, by France’s National Assembly, served as the preamble to the Constitution of 1791.
• Similar documents served as the preamble to the Constitution of 1793 (retitled simply Declaration of the Rights of Man) and to the Constitution of 1795 (retitled Declaration of the Rights and Duties of Man and the Citizen).