1 November 2026
The United Nations Mission for the Referendum in Western Sahara, known as MINURSO, has stopped work after its mandate ran out at midnight on Saturday. The Security Council could not agree on its future: a United States draft was vetoed by Russia, and a rival Russian text did not get the nine votes it needed. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres said in a statement that the mission's departure does not take away the territory's people from their right to self-determination. He said the United Nations will keep pressing for a political settlement through his Personal Envoy, Staffan de Mistura. At the close the mission had its headquarters at Laayoune, nine team sites and a liaison office at Tindouf, with about 200 staff and observers from more than 35 countries. A liquidation period has now begun, with a smaller team under the Department of Operational Support disposing of equipment. Guterres paid tribute to the 20 mission personnel who died over its 35 years in the territory.
Headquarters at close:
Laayoune
Personnel who died:
20
Votes needed for adoption:
nine
Why it matters for exams: Names MINURSO, the UN Mission for the Referendum in Western Sahara set up in 1991, its headquarters at Laayoune, the Russian veto in the Security Council and Personal Envoy Staffan de Mistura.
Kerala PSCUPSCSSC
In plain words
MINURSO United Nations Mission for the Referendum in Western Sahara — A UN peacekeeping mission created to watch a ceasefire and prepare a vote on the territory's future.
31 October 2026
The UN Biodiversity Conference, COP17, closed in the Armenian capital with a roadmap called the Yerevan Pathway. With four years still to run, it ranks what must be done to meet the 23 targets written into the Kunming-Montreal framework on biodiversity. Astrid Schomaker, Executive Secretary of the Convention on Biological Diversity, said nature cannot be protected while its destruction is still being financed. Parties adopted close to 50 decisions on protected areas, forests, wildlife management, invasive alien species, marine biodiversity and synthetic biology. They also agreed the Sevan Guidelines, which set the working rules for a new permanent body for Indigenous Peoples and local communities. Nearly two billion dollars in fresh biodiversity funding was announced, including 560 million dollars from the Global Environment Facility replenishment. The conference president was Hambardzum Matevosyan, and the next meeting, COP18, goes to Ecuador.
Host city:
Yerevan
Decisions adopted:
nearly 50
Next conference:
COP18 in Ecuador
Why it matters for exams: Names COP17 of the Convention on Biological Diversity at Yerevan, the Yerevan Pathway, the Sevan Guidelines, the 23 targets of the Kunming-Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework and COP18 in Ecuador.
Kerala PSCUPSC
In plain words
CBD Convention on Biological Diversity — The global treaty whose parties meet at the biodiversity COP.
31 October 2026
Volker Turk, the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, has asked for an independent investigation into the death of Mohammad el Shami, a staff member of his office in Yemen. El Shami had been held by the Houthi de facto authorities since June of 2024, and his family say he died more than a month before they were told. Turk called on the authorities to release medical and detention records, preserve evidence and allow outside scrutiny of any stated cause of death. He said the family has had no explanation of how or why he died and that there must be accountability for wrongdoing. Seven colleagues from the same office remain in detention, and the United Nations said in mid-October that 71 of its personnel were being held. The Secretary-General's Special Envoy for Yemen, Hans Grundberg, told the Security Council in October that the country had slid back into full-scale war. The UN aid coordination office puts the number of Yemenis needing assistance this year at more than 22 million.
UN personnel in detention:
71
Yemenis needing aid:
more than 22 million
Why it matters for exams: Names Volker Turk as UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, Hans Grundberg as the Secretary-General's Special Envoy for Yemen and OCHA as the UN aid coordination office.
Kerala PSCUPSC
In plain words
OHCHR Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights — The UN body that monitors and reports on human rights worldwide.
OCHA Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs — The UN office that coordinates emergency relief.
31 October 2026
James Heenan, who heads the UN human rights office in the South Korean capital Seoul, says the Democratic People's Republic of Korea is putting up factories and hospitals, spreading mobile handsets and phone banking, and writing new law at a pace not seen before. At the same time, he told UN News, its people are more cut off from the world than at any earlier point. His team watches the country from outside its borders because almost nobody can get in. The office gives first weight to information from direct witnesses, including people who suffered violations themselves or whose relatives did. It also leans increasingly on material the government itself publishes, which has grown in volume. Heenan said hunger has not let up, that compulsory labour reaches into every household, and that the Chinese border is shut so firmly that even crossings without permission have almost ceased. He warned against treating the country as frozen in time, saying it changes constantly like any other.
Office location:
Seoul
Head of office:
James Heenan
Why it matters for exams: Fixes that the UN human rights office monitoring the DPRK sits in Seoul, its head James Heenan, and that DPRK is the formal name of North Korea.
Kerala PSCUPSC
In plain words
DPRK Democratic People's Republic of Korea — The formal name of North Korea.
1 November 2026
Israel's completed count from its legislative election leaves no bloc with a majority in the 120-member Knesset. The pro-Netanyahu coalition took 53 seats, made up of Likud with 27, United Torah Judaism with 7, Otzma Yehudit with 7, Shas with 6 and Religious Zionism with 6. A bloc of Jewish parties opposing the Prime Minister won 48, led by Yashar with 21 and B'Yachad with 12, alongside The Democrats with 8 and Yisrael Beytenu with 7. Arab-led parties hold 19 seats, with the Joint List on 11 and Ra'am on 8. Sixty-one seats are needed for a majority, so some parties must realign or cross bloc lines. President Isaac Herzog must task a candidate with forming a government once the results are certified. If no arrangement is reached the country could return to the polls.
Seats in the Knesset:
120
Seats for a majority:
61
Largest single party:
Likud, 27
Why it matters for exams: Fixes the Knesset's strength at 120 with 61 for a majority, the party-wise seat tally, and the Israeli President Isaac Herzog's power to task a leader with forming a government.
Kerala PSCUPSC
In plain words
Knesset Knesset — The single-chamber legislature of Israel.
Background
The Vienna Convention on Consular Relations is the treaty that sets out how one country runs its consulates in another. The United Nations Conference on Consular Relations met in Vienna, in Austria, and adopted the text there. The Convention is dated Vienna, 24 April 1963, and it entered into force on 19 March 1967 in accordance with its article 77. The same conference adopted two Optional Protocols, one on the acquisition of nationality and one on the compulsory settlement of disputes. The Convention and both Protocols were deposited with the Secretary-General of the United Nations, who acts as the depositary. It treats a consulate-general, a consulate, a vice-consulate and a consular agency alike as a consular post, and calls the area given to such a post a consular district. Consular officers fall into two categories, career and honorary, and their listed functions include issuing passports and travel documents and visas, and acting as notary and civil registrar. The United Kingdom gave listed provisions of the Convention the force of its own law through the Consular Relations Act 1968.
Dated at:
Vienna, 24 April 1963
Entry into force:
19 March 1967, under article 77
Optional Protocols:
Acquisition of Nationality; Compulsory Settlement of Disputes
Depositary:
Secretary-General of the United Nations
Why it matters for exams: Consular posts, the two classes of consular officer and the treaty that governs them are standard international law questions in Kerala PSC and UPSC papers.
Kerala PSCUPSCSSC
In plain words
Consular post — A consulate-general, consulate, vice-consulate or consular agency of one State in another.
Depositary — The authority that keeps a treaty's original text and the record of who has joined it.
Optional Protocol — A side agreement to a treaty that a State can accept on its own.
Background
The Minamata Convention on Mercury is a multilateral environmental agreement aimed at the human activities that spread mercury pollution. It is named after Minamata in Japan, where industrial wastewater from a chemical factory was discharged into Minamata Bay over many years. That wastewater carried methylmercury, which built up in fish and shellfish, and local people who ate the seafood fell seriously ill, with many deaths and lasting disability. Delegates from over 140 countries adopted the text after three years of negotiation, and the Convention opened for signature at a diplomatic conference at Kumamoto in Japan. It entered into force in 2017, and the first Conference of the Parties met at Geneva in Switzerland. Parties must cut and where feasible end mercury use and release in artisanal and small-scale gold mining, and control mercury emissions from coal-fired power plants, coal-fired industrial boilers, some non-ferrous metals plants, waste incineration and cement production. They must also phase out or reduce mercury in products such as batteries, switches, lights, cosmetics, pesticides and measuring devices, and start work to cut mercury use in dental amalgam. The Convention further covers mercury supply and trade, safer storage and disposal, contaminated sites and reporting by Parties, and it is to be evaluated from time to time for how well it works.
Named after:
Minamata, Japan
Opened for signature at:
Kumamoto, Japan
Adopted by:
Delegates from over 140 countries
First Conference of the Parties:
Geneva, Switzerland
Why it matters for exams: The Convention's name, the country it comes from and the sectors it names are regularly asked in environment sections of Kerala PSC and UPSC papers.
Kerala PSCUPSCSSC
In plain words
Methylmercury — An organic mercury compound that builds up in fish and shellfish and harms the nervous system.
ASGM Artisanal and small-scale gold mining — Small, often informal gold mining that uses mercury to separate gold from ore.
Dental amalgam — A filling material for teeth in which mercury is mixed with other metals.
Background
The Cartagena Protocol on Biosafety is an agreement made under the Convention on Biological Diversity, and it deals with living modified organisms, or LMOs. Its full name is the Cartagena Protocol on Biosafety to the Convention on Biological Diversity, and it aims at the safe transfer, handling and use of LMOs from modern biotechnology that could harm biological diversity, while also taking risks to human health into account. Cartagena is a city in Colombia where the text was first meant to be concluded, but outstanding issues delayed it and the Protocol was finally adopted at Montreal. The Protocol was adopted on 29 January 2000, and it came into force on 11 September 2003. Its central rule is the advance informed agreement procedure, which applies to the first intentional transboundary movement of LMOs meant for release into the environment of the importing Party. That procedure has four parts: notification by the exporting Party or the exporter, acknowledgment of receipt by the importing Party, a decision step and a review of decisions. A lighter procedure covers LMOs intended for direct use as food or feed, or for processing. The Protocol also set up a Biosafety Clearing-House through which Parties exchange scientific, technical, environmental and legal information, and the Nagoya – Kuala Lumpur Supplementary Protocol sits beside it on liability and redress.
Parent treaty:
Convention on Biological Diversity
Adopted:
29 January 2000, at Montreal
Entry into force:
11 September 2003
Information body:
Biosafety Clearing-House
Why it matters for exams: What an LMO is, which convention the Protocol belongs to and the name of its import procedure are repeat questions in environment and science sections.
Kerala PSCUPSCSSC
In plain words
LMO Living modified organism — A living organism that carries a new combination of genetic material made with modern biotechnology.
AIA Advance informed agreement — The rule under which an importing country must be told, and must agree, before the first shipment of LMOs for release into its environment.
Biosafety Clearing-House — The Protocol's information exchange, part of the clearing-house mechanism of the parent convention.
Background
The United Nations Human Rights Council is the main intergovernmental body that deals with human rights across the world. The General Assembly created it through resolution 60/251, which at the same time dissolved the older Commission on Human Rights. That commission had been set up as a subsidiary body of the Economic and Social Council and had 53 members. The Council has 47 seats shared among five regional groups: African and Asian states hold 13 each, Eastern European states 6, Latin American and Caribbean states 8, and Western European and other states 7. Members serve three years and cannot hold a seat for more than two terms in a row; the General Assembly elects them by secret ballot, and an absolute majority is required. If a member commits gross and systematic violations of human rights, the General Assembly can suspend it by a two-thirds vote of the members present. The Council sits at Geneva in Switzerland, meets for three or more sessions a year, and can hold a special session if one member asks for it with the support of a third of the membership. Every Council member and every United Nations member state has to undergo the Universal Periodic Review, which is run by a working group made up of the 47 Council members and chaired by the Council president, who holds that office for one year.
Members:
47
Created by:
General Assembly resolution 60/251
Seat:
Geneva, Switzerland
Term:
Three years, at most two consecutive terms
Why it matters for exams: The number of seats, the body it replaced, the organ that elects it and the review it runs are recurring polity and international relations questions.
Kerala PSCUPSCSSC
In plain words
UPR Universal Periodic Review — The process in which every United Nations member state's human rights record is examined in turn.
Regional group — One of the five geographic blocs through which United Nations seats are shared out.
Subsidiary body — A body set up by, and reporting to, a principal organ of the United Nations.
Background
The Biological Weapons Convention, or BWC, is the treaty that bans biological weapons. Its full title names bacteriological (biological) and toxin weapons, and covers the prohibition of their development, production and stockpiling as well as their destruction. It was signed in 1972 and entered into force in 1975, and it is of unlimited duration. The Convention bans the development, production, stockpiling and transfer of biological weapons and of biological agents and toxins, and also of equipment or means of delivery designed to use such agents for hostile purposes or in armed conflict. States parties must destroy the agents, toxins, weapons, equipment and means of delivery they hold. Unlike the Chemical Weapons Convention, the BWC lists no particular agents; it speaks generally of microbial and other biological agents, and of toxins, of any origin or manner of making, in types and amounts that no prophylactic or peaceful purpose can justify. Only defensive work such as vaccines and protective equipment is allowed, and stocks are permitted only in amounts that protective or peaceful purposes can justify. The treaty carries no independent verification or enforcement machinery; states parties set up an Implementation Support Unit to help monitor and encourage compliance, and they hold a Review Conference every five years with annual meetings in between.
Signed:
1972
In force:
1975, unlimited duration
Review Conference:
Every five years
Support body:
Implementation Support Unit
Why it matters for exams: The expansion of BWC, the absence of a verification body and the five-year review cycle are standard defence and security questions.
Kerala PSCUPSCSSC
In plain words
BWC Biological Weapons Convention — The treaty banning the development, production, stockpiling and transfer of biological weapons.
Toxin — A poisonous substance produced by a living organism.
Prophylactic purpose — A use meant to prevent disease, such as making a vaccine.
Background
The Comprehensive Nuclear-Test-Ban Treaty, or CTBT, would ban all nuclear explosive testing, and it has still not entered into force. It was negotiated in the Conference on Disarmament, adopted by the United Nations General Assembly and opened for signature in 1996. Under its Article XIV the treaty enters into force 180 days after all 44 states named in its Annex 2 have deposited their instruments of ratification, but not less than two years after it was opened for signature. Those 44 are the states with nuclear reactors that took part in the disarmament conference session of that year and were its members at the time. The treaty sets up a verification regime, with an International Monitoring System and provision for on-site inspections. When complete that system is to have 321 stations: 170 seismic stations for waves in the Earth, 11 hydroacoustic stations for underwater sound, 60 arrays of infrasound detectors for very low frequency sound in the atmosphere, and 80 radionuclide stations for radioactive particles, half of which also look for radioactive xenon gas, backed by 16 radionuclide laboratories. Data flow to an International Data Center, or IDC, and of the seismic stations 50 are to report continuously in real time while 120 report when the IDC asks. Article II of the treaty creates the Comprehensive Nuclear-Test-Ban Treaty Organization, which will come into existence only once the treaty is in force, so a Preparatory Commission certifies the stations and runs the system in the meantime.
Entry into force needs:
Ratification by the 44 Annex 2 states, plus 180 days
Monitoring stations:
321 when complete
Station types:
170 seismic, 11 hydroacoustic, 60 infrasound, 80 radionuclide
Organisation created by:
Article II of the treaty
Why it matters for exams: The Annex 2 condition, the four kinds of monitoring station and the body that will run the treaty are repeatedly asked in defence and international sections.
Kerala PSCUPSCSSC
In plain words
CTBT Comprehensive Nuclear-Test-Ban Treaty — The treaty that would ban every nuclear explosive test, not yet in force.
Annex 2 states — The 44 states whose ratification the treaty needs before it can enter into force.
IMS International Monitoring System — The worldwide network of stations that watches for signs of a nuclear explosion.
Infrasound — Sound at frequencies too low for human hearing, which travels far in the atmosphere.
Background
The Australia Group is an informal arrangement through which governments coordinate export controls on items that could be used to make chemical or biological weapons. It grew out of the finding by United Nations investigators that chemical weapons had been used in the Iran-Iraq War. The United States and several other countries then began to control exports of chemicals that could be turned into chemical weapons, and Australia proposed that concerned countries meet to coordinate those controls and share information. The first meeting was held soon after, and the group's meetings continue at the Australian embassy in Paris. The group keeps a control list of chemicals and equipment, and biological agents and research and production equipment were added to that list as covert biological weapons programmes became a worry. Its guidelines do not forbid exporting listed items; they call for monitoring and licensing, with an export refused only where there is reason to suspect a contribution to a weapons programme, so lawful trade is not cut off. Later additions cover items not on the lists at all, eight further toxins, technology tied to dual-use biological equipment, and transfers of knowledge by telephone, fax or internet. The arrangement rests on no treaty and has no administrative structure of its own; it works entirely by consensus of its members, its outcomes are not binding, and a new member is taken in only by full consensus once it has shown compliance with the chemical and biological weapons conventions and an effective export control system of its own.
Covers:
Chemical and biological weapons related exports
Meets at:
The Australian embassy in Paris
Decision rule:
Consensus; outcomes not binding
Membership:
Admitted only by the full consensus of current members
Why it matters for exams: Which weapons the group covers, the war that prompted it and the fact that it has no treaty behind it are the exam-worthy points here.
Kerala PSCUPSCSSC
In plain words
Control list — A list of goods and technology whose export needs a licence.
Dual-use — Describes an item with both civil and military uses.
Catch-all control — A rule that can stop an export even when the item is on no control list.