30 October 2026
The Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights warned on 30 October that displacement inside Gaza is getting worse. Ajith Sunghay, who heads the office's presence in the Occupied Palestinian Territory, said the nightmare of displacement there is both acute and chronic, and that for most Palestinians in Gaza this is the fourth year of being moved from place to place. The office said Israel has stated that it wants to widen its military deployment area to 70 per cent of Gaza's territory. Over the previous two weeks it recorded the deployment area pushing westward in Al Shujaiyeh and Gaza City and in the eastern parts of Al Bureij, Deir Al-Balah and Al Maghazi. It said Israeli forces appear to treat the demarcation called the yellow line as a kill zone, which stops displaced people from going back to their homes on the other side. On 25 October munitions dropped on tents at the Al Shujaiyeh junction set a fire that burned for five hours; the Palestinian Ministry of Public Works and Housing put the number displaced by that attack at 200 families, or 800 people. The office said forcible transfer of Palestinians within Gaza is a war crime that may also amount to a crime against humanity, and asked Israel as the occupying power to allow safe and dignified returns.
Share of Gaza Israel says it wants as deployment area:
70 per cent
People displaced by the Al Shujaiyeh junction attack:
200 families, 800 people
Why it matters for exams: The Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights, its seat and its mandate, and the legal description of forcible transfer as a war crime are standard international-affairs and law questions.
Kerala PSCUPSC
In plain words
OHCHR Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights — The UN body, with its headquarters at Geneva, that monitors and reports on human rights worldwide.
30 October 2026
The United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees said on 30 October that the renewed war in Yemen has made large parts of the country too dangerous for its teams to reach. Spokesperson Matthew Saltmarsh said more than 280,000 people have been displaced by the fighting and that over 65,000 refugees and asylum seekers in Yemen are in a worsening position. The Kharaz camp in Lahj governorate, which sits near the front line, holds about 9,500 refugees from Somalia and Ethiopia; shelling nearby has disrupted services and restricted movement, and schools and legal services there are suspended. The agency's appeal for Yemen is only 19 per cent funded. Eleven containers of relief items, enough for 3,000 kits serving more than 20,000 people, are being shipped from Dubai. Fighting between Houthi forces and government forces grew sharply last month, ending a ceasefire that had held for four years. The agency said disruption to shipping through the Strait of Hormuz and the Bab El-Mandeb Strait is making delivery harder, and that its work in Sudan, Djibouti and Ethiopia is similarly exposed.
People displaced by the fighting:
more than 280,000
Refugees in the Kharaz camp:
about 9,500
Funding received for the Yemen appeal:
19 per cent
Why it matters for exams: UNHCR's mandate, Yemen's capital and governorates, and the Bab El-Mandeb and Hormuz chokepoints are repeatedly asked in geography and international-affairs papers.
Kerala PSCUPSC
In plain words
UNHCR United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees — The UN agency for refugees, with its headquarters at Geneva.
29 October 2026
At least 13 civilians were killed and 10 injured when a jet-powered drone struck the main railway station at Dnipro in Ukraine on 29 October. A train bound for Zaporizhzhia was standing at a platform at the time. Regional officials said an 11-year-old boy was among the injured. Matthias Schmale, the United Nations Humanitarian Coordinator for Ukraine, condemned the attack and said civilians who were preparing for a journey or seeing off their relatives met death and devastation instead. A Humanitarian Coordinator is the senior United Nations official in a country who leads the relief response and speaks for the aid agencies working there. Dnipro, on the Dnieper river in central-eastern Ukraine, is one of the country's largest cities and a major railway junction, which is why its station carries both civilian passengers and relief movement. Railway stations and other civilian infrastructure have been struck repeatedly since the war began.
Civilians killed:
at least 13
Injured:
10
Why it matters for exams: Ukraine's capital and the Dnieper river, and what a United Nations Humanitarian Coordinator does, are the durable facts an examiner can take from this attack.
Kerala PSCUPSC
In plain words
Humanitarian Coordinator United Nations Humanitarian Coordinator — The senior UN official in a country who leads and speaks for the relief response there.
29 October 2026
The World Food Programme warned on 29 October that acute hunger in Haiti is on course to reach record levels. It projects that about 6.35 million people in the country will face acute food insecurity between March and June 2027. The agency said it has reached 2.6 million people in Haiti so far in 2026 and needs 78 million US dollars to keep its operations running through March. The humanitarian plan for Haiti is less than half funded. The warning came alongside an assessment from the Food and Agriculture Organization that armed violence is cutting people off from markets, land and farm inputs, and that a strong El Nino is bringing drier and hotter conditions that are expected to cause crop losses and delay planting into next year. Inflation of about 17 per cent has further cut what households can buy. The Food and Agriculture Organization is distributing emergency kits with seeds, poultry, ducks and goats so that families can produce their own milk and eggs.
People projected to face acute food insecurity, March to June 2027:
about 6.35 million
People reached in Haiti in 2026 so far:
2.6 million
Funding needed through March:
$78 million
Why it matters for exams: The World Food Programme's headquarters and Nobel Peace Prize, Haiti's capital and what El Nino is are the durable facts here.
Kerala PSCUPSC
In plain words
WFP World Food Programme — The UN's food assistance agency, based at Rome, which won the Nobel Peace Prize in 2020.
El Nino El Nino — A warming of the eastern Pacific Ocean that shifts rainfall patterns around the world.
29 October 2026
The World Health Organization said in an update reported on 29 October that it has delivered trauma and emergency surgery kits to hospitals in Taiz City in Yemen, which remains almost entirely encircled by Houthi forces. The consignment reached the city over the weekend and was shared among several facilities. The agency said restrictions on movement have forced community midwives to stop work, and that reaching Taiz province from Aden and from the west coast is still restricted. Taiz has acute shortages of medicine, fuel and water. Waste collection has broken down and the city's dumps cannot be reached safely because of the fighting, which raises the risk of disease outbreaks. In Marib governorate the agency described primary health care as on the verge of collapse after funding cuts: only 6 of 31 mobile medical teams are still working and 15 health facilities have stopped functioning altogether.
Mobile medical teams still working in Marib:
6 of 31
Health facilities that have stopped functioning in Marib:
15
Why it matters for exams: The World Health Organization's seat and governing body, and Yemen's geography, are the durable facts; the Marib and Taiz figures show how a health system fails in a siege.
Kerala PSCUPSC
In plain words
WHO World Health Organization — The United Nations agency for health, with its headquarters at Geneva.
29 October 2026
The United Nations Children's Fund set out on 29 October what the war has cost Sudan's children: across the first nine months of 2026 the agency counted upwards of 400 of them dead or wounded, with armed drones behind a large share of that figure. Etleva Kadilli, who directs the agency's work in Eastern and Southern Africa, spoke after a drone struck a market at Nyala in South Darfur, where five children died and two were hurt. Those killed were aged between 7 and 14 — three boys and two girls. A child should not lose their life going to a market, Kadilli said. The agency also recalled a strike on the Abyei market a week before, in which at least 80 people are counted dead, women and children among them. Drones, it said, have wrecked houses, schools, clinics, water systems and markets, so the damage keeps working long after each attack. Sudan has been at war since the army and a rival force began fighting, and Darfur is among the regions worst hit.
Children reported killed or injured, January to September 2026:
more than 400
Children killed in the Nyala market attack:
5
Why it matters for exams: UNICEF's full name and mandate, Darfur's place in Sudan and Sudan's capital are the durable facts an examiner takes from this; the 400-child figure is the new one.
Kerala PSCUPSC
In plain words
UNICEF United Nations Children's Fund — The UN agency for children, which works on their survival, health, education and protection.
29 October 2026
UNESCO reported on 29 October that Jamaica has entered the pilot phase of the SDG Joint Programme on Digital Transformation for Education. UNESCO leads it jointly with UNICEF, the Food and Agriculture Organization and the World Food Programme, working alongside Jamaica's Ministry of Education, Skills, Youth and Information. Fifty-four schools have been picked by the Ministry for the pilot, and a sensitisation session for their teachers was held at Mandeville. The programme is meant to widen the country's Education Management Information System, so that school records now spread across separate platforms sit together in one system. It will also get the existing teacher data systems to speak to one another, and shift hiring processes for teaching and non-teaching staff onto digital records. Principals and school administrators are to get their own workshop on digital transformation and artificial intelligence early in 2027. UNESCO ties the work to Sustainable Development Goal 4, which covers inclusive and equitable quality education.
Schools in the pilot:
54
Agencies leading the joint programme:
UNESCO, UNICEF, FAO and WFP
Why it matters for exams: Sustainable Development Goal 4, what an Education Management Information System is, and which UN agencies lead a joint programme are the durable facts here.
Kerala PSCUPSC
In plain words
EMIS Education Management Information System — A single system in which a government keeps data on schools, pupils and teachers.
Background
The International Statistical Classification of Diseases and Related Health Problems, known as the ICD, is the World Health Organization's standard for recording disease and cause of death. It has been the basis for comparable statistics on mortality and morbidity between places and over time for more than a century. Its eleventh revision, ICD-11, was adopted by the 72nd World Health Assembly and replaces ICD-10. The classification works inside the WHO's constitutional mandate to establish international nomenclatures, and alongside the WHO Nomenclature regulations. ICD-coded data is used on death certificates, in hospital records, in cancer registries and in reporting antimicrobial resistance. ICD-11 is distributed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NoDerivs 3.0 IGO license and is available in ten languages, with more under translation. For the first time the classification carries a supplementary chapter on traditional medicine conditions, meant only for optional dual coding. That chapter is not intended for mortality reporting, and a record using it must also carry a category from chapters 1-24 of the ICD.
Full name of the standard:
International Statistical Classification of Diseases and Related Health Problems
Assembly session that adopted ICD-11:
72nd World Health Assembly
Revision it replaces:
ICD-10
Languages it is available in:
10 languages
New supplementary chapter:
Traditional medicine conditions
Chapters a record must also use:
chapters 1-24
Licence for the classification:
Creative Commons Attribution-NoDerivs 3.0 IGO license
Why it matters for exams: The expansion of ICD, the World Health Assembly session that adopted ICD-11 and its traditional medicine chapter are standard Health questions.
Kerala PSCUPSCSSC
In plain words
ICD International Statistical Classification of Diseases and Related Health Problems — The World Health Organization's code set for disease and cause of death.
Morbidity Morbidity — The burden of illness in a population, as against deaths.
Background
The International Treaty on Plant Genetic Resources for Food and Agriculture is a legally binding treaty that sits with the Food and Agriculture Organization. Its Multilateral System puts 64 of the most important crops into one accessible global pool of genetic resources. Those crops together account for 80 percent of the food people get from plants. Access to the material is for research, breeding and training for food and agriculture, and only parties to the Treaty can take it on that undertaking. A recipient cannot claim intellectual property rights over the resources in the form in which they were received. Anyone who takes material through the Multilateral System agrees to share benefits from its use through four benefit-sharing mechanisms set up by the Treaty. The Treaty recognises farmers' rights, calling for protection of their traditional knowledge, a greater say for them in national processes and a share in the benefits. A voluntary International Undertaking came first, followed by the Global Plan of Action at Leipzig, and then the binding Treaty was adopted; it entered into force on 29 June 2004.
Crops in the Multilateral System:
64 crops
Share of plant-based food those crops give:
80 percent
Benefit-sharing mechanisms:
four benefit-sharing mechanisms
Date it entered into force:
29 June 2004
Organisation it sits with:
FAO Headquarters
Voluntary instrument that came first:
International Undertaking on Plant Genetic Resources
Why it matters for exams: The 64 crops in the Multilateral System, the 80 percent figure and farmers' rights are the standard questions on the plant genetic resources treaty.
Kerala PSCUPSC
In plain words
Multilateral System Multilateral System of Access and Benefit-sharing — The common pool of listed crop genetic material that parties to the Treaty can draw from.
Farmers' rights Farmers' rights — The Treaty's recognition of what farmers have contributed to crop diversity.
Background
The United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change is the treaty under which countries agreed to work together on limiting the rise in global average temperature and on coping with the effects already on the way. Preventing dangerous human interference with the climate system is stated as the ultimate aim of the Convention. The treaty was opened in 1992 and entered into force on 21 March 1994, and the countries that have ratified it are called Parties to the Convention. Its membership is close to universal. Work under the Convention runs through two standing subsidiary bodies. The Subsidiary Body for Scientific and Technological Advice handles research, systematic observation and the development and transfer of technologies. The Subsidiary Body for Implementation handles national adaptation programmes of action and the support of adaptation through finance, technology and capacity-building. Negotiated instruments under the Convention include the Cancun Adaptation Framework, which came out of the Bali Action Plan, and the Nairobi work programme on impacts, vulnerability and adaptation.
Date it entered into force:
21 March 1994
Interference the Convention aims to prevent:
human interference with the climate system
Name for a country that has ratified it:
Parties to the Convention
Body for research and technology:
Subsidiary Body for Scientific and Technological Advice
Body for implementation:
Subsidiary Body for Implementation
Framework that came out of the Bali Action Plan:
Cancun Adaptation Framework
Why it matters for exams: The ultimate aim of the Convention, the two Subsidiary Bodies and the Cancun and Nairobi instruments are the standard questions on the climate treaty system.
Kerala PSCUPSCSSC
In plain words
SBSTA Subsidiary Body for Scientific and Technological Advice — The standing body that gives the Convention its scientific and technical advice.
SBI Subsidiary Body for Implementation — The standing body that follows how Parties carry out the Convention.
NAPA National adaptation programme of action — A country's plan of the adaptation steps it needs most urgently.
Background
The Indian Ocean Rim Association is an inter-governmental organisation of countries whose shores are washed by the Indian Ocean. The idea came from a remark by Nelson Mandela, then President of South Africa, on a visit to India, that history and geography pointed towards an Indian Ocean rim grouping for socio-economic co-operation. That led first to the Indian Ocean Rim Initiative and, two years later, to the Association itself. Its foundation document is the IORA Charter, which sets the guiding principles. The Charter commits the Association to economic cooperation in a spirit of multilateralism, through an approach that is consensus-based, evolutionary and non-intrusive. Work is organised under six Priority Areas and two Cross-Cutting Issues. A Committee of Senior Officials meets twice a year to carry the agenda forward and to take up the recommendations of working groups and forums of officials, business and academics. The region is home to nearly 2.7 billion people and its sea lanes carry a large share of the world's container traffic, bulk cargo and oil shipments.
Nature of the body:
inter-governmental organisation
Foundation document:
IORA Charter
Priority Areas and Cross-Cutting Issues:
six Priority Areas and two Cross-Cutting Issues
How the approach is described:
consensus-based, evolutionary and non-intrusive
Body that meets twice a year:
committee of Senior Officials
People in the region:
2.7 billion people
Leader whose remark prompted it:
Nelson Mandela
Why it matters for exams: The IORA Charter, its six Priority Areas and two Cross-Cutting Issues and the Committee of Senior Officials are the standard questions on the Indian Ocean grouping.
Kerala PSCUPSCSSCBank
In plain words
IORA Indian Ocean Rim Association — The inter-governmental grouping of the countries around the Indian Ocean.
CSO Committee of Senior Officials — The officials' committee that drives the grouping's work between summits.
Background
Judges of the European Court of Human Rights are elected by the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe. Each State proposes a list of three candidates, and the Assembly chooses from that list. A judge serves a non-renewable term of nine years. Although a judge is elected in respect of a State, they hear cases as individuals and do not represent that State. The Court is led by its President and is organised into five Sections, each headed by a Section President, two of whom also serve as Vice-Presidents of the Court. A Chamber is the judicial formation within a Section, while the Section itself is an administrative entity. The Grand Chamber comprises 17 judges, including the President of the Court, the Vice-Presidents, the Presidents of the Sections and the national judge, with the remaining judges designated by drawing lots. A panel of five judges decides whether a case is referred to the Grand Chamber, and such examination stays the exception to the rule.
Term of a judge:
non-renewable term of nine years
Candidates each State proposes:
lists of three candidates
Body that elects the judges:
Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe
Sections in the Court:
five Sections
Judges in the Grand Chamber:
17 judges
Judges on the referral panel:
five judges
Why it matters for exams: The nine-year non-renewable term, the five Sections and the 17-judge Grand Chamber are the standard questions on the European human rights court.
Kerala PSCUPSC
In plain words
Grand Chamber Grand Chamber — The largest formation of the Court, which takes the gravest cases.
Chamber Chamber — The judicial formation that normally hears an application.