10 PM Current Affairs Quiz #41 December 18, 2019

Explanation: The Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) expressed concern over the Citizenship (Amendment) Act for being fundamentally discriminatory in nature.
About the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR):
•It is the principal UN entity on human rights. It is a part of the UN Secretariat, one of the main organs of the UN.
•It was established in 1993 and is headquartered in Geneva, Switzerland.
•Its mandate is to promote and protect the human rights that are guaranteed under international law and put forward in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights of 1948

Explanation: The Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) and J&K administration’s have different viewpoint on application of Article 371 in J&K
Article 371, contained in XXI of the Constitution, grants some temporary, transition and special provisions to some states in India.

Explanation: World Economic Forum(WEF) has released the Global Gender Gap Index Report 2019.
About Global gender gap Index:
•The Global gender gap Index is published annually by the World Economic Forum(WEF) since 2006.
•The report ranks 153 countries on their progress towards gender parity in four dimensions namely (a)Economic Participation and Opportunity, (b)Educational Attainment ((c)Health and Survival and (d)Political Empowerment.
•In addition,this year’s report examines gender gap prospects in the professions of the future.
Index on India:
•India has been ranked at 112th in the Global gender gap Index 2019.In 2018,India was on the 108th position.
•India’s rank has worsened due to widening disparity in terms of women’s health and survival and economic participation.
•India has slipped to 150th place on health and survival, 112th on educational attainment and 149th in economic participation.
•The report has said that there are very few economic opportunities for women in India.It is 34.5% in India, 32.7% in Pakistan, 27.3%in Yemen and 22.7% in Iraq.
•It also highlights that India has a very low (13.8 percent) women representation on company boards.

Explanation: Extremely severe cyclonic Fani hit the Odisha coast in Puri in may 2019 with a wind speed or around 175 kmph. A cyclone named Fani is a massive cyclonic formation over the south of Bay of Bengal which is expected to make landfall in Tamil Nadu, Kerala and Andhra Pradesh. Cyclone Fani pronounced as Foni name was suggested by Bangladesh. It means ‘Snake’ or ‘hood of snake’. Even the World Meteorological Organisation (WMO) has a well defined process to select the name of each cyclone.
A recent study has found that the impact of super cyclonic storm Fani had affected the bird populations along Mahanadi River.

Explanation: Recently,the Supreme Court has expressed displeasure over rioting and destruction of public property while hearing petitions on alleged police excesses on students in Jamia Millia Islamia.
About Prevention of Damage to Public Property Act,1984:
•The Prevention of Damage to Public Property Act,1984 punishes anyone who commits mischief by doing any act in respect of any public property with a jail term of up to five years and a fine or both.
•Public property under this Act includes any property used in connection with the production, distribution or supply of water, light, power or energy or any means of public transportation or of telecommunications or other property used in connection therewith.
•However,despite a law against the destruction of property, incidents of rioting, vandalism, and arson have been common during protests across the country.
•This is because the identification of protesters remains difficult, especially in cases where there is no leader who gave the call to protest.
Supreme Court Guidelines:
In 2009, in the Destruction of Public & Private Properties v State of AP and Ors, the Supreme Court has issued guidelines based on the recommendations of the two expert Committees.
•Thomas Committee:
The Thomas Committee had recommended reversing the burden of proof against protesters.
The apex court accepted the recommendation and said that the law must be amended to give the court the power to draw a presumption that the accused is guilty of destroying public property and it would then be open to the accused to rebut such presumption.
•Nariman Committee:
The Nariman Committee recommendations were with respect to extracting damages for destruction.
The court accepted the recommendations and said that the rioters would be made strictly liable for the damage and compensation should be collected to make good the damage.
In 2017,the Punjab and Haryana High Court had ruled to recover the damages from the Dera whose followers were involved in vandalism of Public property.