Current Affair 1:

Quad Partnership on Humanitarian Assistance and Disaster Relief (HADR)

Source Link

 

Australia, India and Japan and United States met in New York on 23 September 2022 and signed into operation the Guidelines for the ‘Quad Partnership on Humanitarian Assistance and Disaster Relief (HADR) in the Indo-Pacific’. This partnership was announced by Quad Leaders in Tokyo on 24 May 2022, as part of a shared vision for a free and open Indo-Pacific that is inclusive and resilient.

The Partnership has been designed to respond to the vulnerabilities of the Indo-Pacific region and will serve as a dedicated framework for Quad partners to coordinate their disaster response operations in the region.

Under the partnership, Quad partners will promote inclusion by advancing gender equality and women’s and girl’s empowerment, ensuring persons with disabilities are agents and beneficiaries of humanitarian action, and by ensuring indigenous people, minority groups and persons in vulnerable situations are not left behind.

The guidelines call for zero tolerance for inaction on tackling Sexual Exploitation, Abuse and Harassment (SEAH).

The Partnership will coordinate HADR operations with the UN and other international agencies and donors, regional and local governments, public and private organisations, and non-government organizations where appropriate and in the best interest of humanity.

 

Current Affair 2:

POCSO vs MTP Act

 

The Case

According to the petition filed by the 16-year-old's mother, no government or private hospital agreed to terminate the pregnancy as the matter was not reported by the family to police. The Delhi High Court on September 20 directed the Centre to ensure that a minor's pregnancy of nearly 20 weeks is terminated at All India Institute of Medical Sciences.

POCSO Act

Why did the doctors refuse to terminate the pregnancy without reporting the matter to police? The consent of a minor is inconsequential(of little value) in law and any sexual act against a child is an offence.

Section 19 of the Protection of Children from Sexual Offences (POCSO) Act, 2012 makes it mandatory for any person including the child to approach the police in case of an apprehension that an offence under the Act is likely to be committed or "has the knowledge" that such an act has been committed.

The information is required to be provided to the Special Juvenile Unit or the local police and the law makes it clear that "no person shall incur any liability, whether civil or criminal, for giving the information in good faith".

However, a person who fails to report the offence can be punished with a maximum imprisonment of six months or with fine or both under Section 21 of the POCSO Act. Though the child also is required to report the offence to the police but has immunity against the punishment prescribed for non-reporting.

The MTP Act and 2021 Rules

 

The 1971 Act, which was amended last in 2021, permits termination of certain pregnancies by registered medical practitioners. A pregnancy not exceeding 2o weeks can be terminated by a single doctor but in case it is between 20 and 24 weeks, two doctors are required to form an opinion on whether to permit the termination or not.

The conditions include whether the continuance of the pregnancy would involve a risk to the life of the pregnant woman or of grave injury to her physical or mental health. If the unborn child on birth suffers from any serious physical or mental abnormality then also the termination can be allowed.

Under the rules, only a certain category of women is eligible for termination of pregnancy between 20 and 24 weeks. A minor's pregnancy can be terminated up to 24 weeks on the medical opinion of two doctors. Pertinently, a minor's pregnancy can be terminated only after the consent in writing of her guardian, as per the law.

In cases where the pregnancy exceeds 24 weeks and termination is necessitated by diagnosis of any substantial foetal abnormalities, only a medical board comprising a gynaecologist, paediatrician, radiologist or sonologist and other members can take a decision after due consideration of various aspects including safety of the woman.

Vires Challenge

The petition before the Delhi High Court seeks a direction for amendment to Section 3 of MTP Act to allow married or unmarried minor girls between the age of 16 to 18 years to terminate the unwanted pregnancy, that is out of a consensual relationship, without reporting the case to police as mandated under Section 19 (1) of POCSO Act.

Section 19 (1) POCSO violates the right to privacy, right to bodily integrity, right to reproductive choice and personal autonomy which are core of Article 21.

Prima facie, they [Section 19 (1) of POCSO and Section 5A of MTP] are conflicting with each other.

 

Current Affair 3:

L.69 Group of Developing Countries

 

News:

A high-level meeting of members of the L.69 group and other invited like-minded countries on "Reinvigorating Multilateralism and Achieving Comprehensive Reform of the UN Security Council”, was held in New York, today on the side lines of the 77th UNGA.

The L.69 Group of Developing Countries is a cross regional grouping of 42 developing countries from Africa, Latin America and the Caribbean, Asia and the Pacific, that is focused on achieving lasting and comprehensive reforms of the UN Security Council. They form a major bloc that is united by the common cause of achieving the lasting and comprehensive reform of the United Nations Security Council,

The L.69 statement was signed by the Bahamas, Bangladesh, Barbados, Bhutan, Brazil, Bolivia, Burundi, Cabo Verde, Dominica, Grenada, Guyana, Haiti, India, Jamaica, Liberia, Maldives, Mauritius, Micronesia, Mongolia, Nicaragua, Nigeria, Palau, Papua New Guinea, Saint Kitts and Nevis, Saint Lucia, Saint Vincent and Grenadines, Seychelles, South Africa, Timor-Leste, Togo, Tuvalu, and Vanuatu.

The Group derives its name from the draft document number "L.69" that the Group had tabled in 2007-08, which led to the initiation of the Intergovernmental Negotiation (IGN) process.

Current Affair 4:

DART mission - NASA

 

News:

On September 26 at 11.15pm UTC, NASA’s DART mission (Double Asteroid Redirection Test) will be the first to deliberately and measurably change the motion of a significant body in our Solar System. In other words, it will smash into an asteroid.

The mission will provide the first test of a technique that could be used in the future — to redirect any asteroids we detect on a collision course with Earth.

What is the level of threat?   An asteroid as small as 25 metres in diameter could produce injuries from an airburst explosion if it hit the atmosphere over a populated area. It is estimated that 5 million such objects exist in our Solar System and that we have discovered approximately 0.4 per cent of them. Such a hit is estimated to occur once every 100 years. While quite frequent, the overall risk is low and the impact risk is relatively low too.

 

About:

The DART mission is NASA's demonstration of kinetic impactor technology, impacting an asteroid to adjust its speed and path. DART will be the first-ever space mission to demonstrate asteroid deflection by kinetic impactor.

DART's target is the binary asteroid system Didymos, which means "twin" in Greek (and explains the word "double" in the mission's name). Didymos is the ideal candidate for humankind's first planetary defense experiment, although it is not on a path to collide with Earth and therefore poses no actual threat to the planet.

The system is composed of two asteroids: the larger asteroid Didymos (diameter: 780 meters, 0.48 miles), and the smaller moonlet asteroid, Dimorphos (diameter: 160 meters, 525 feet), which orbits the larger asteroid. The DART spacecraft will impact Dimorphos nearly head-on, shortening the time it takes the small asteroid moonlet to orbit Didymos by several minutes.

If DART is successful, it may set the scene for future missions that target asteroids, to nudge them out of the way of collisions with Earth. When an asteroid is a long way from Earth, only a small nudge is required to get it out of our way, so the earlier we can identify asteroids that are a potential threat, the better.

 

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