UPSC Prelims 2015 GS Paper I · Q53 of 100 Current Events easy

Amnesty International is

  1. (a) an agency of the United Nations to help refugees of civil wars
  2. (b) a global Human Rights Movement ✓ UPSC's answer
  3. (c) a non-governmental voluntary organization to help very poor people
  4. (d) an inter-governmental agency to cater to medical emergencies in war-ravaged regions

Why the answer is (b)

• Amnesty International, founded in London in 1961 by lawyer Peter Benenson, is a global human-rights movement of over 10 million members campaigning against torture, the death penalty and political imprisonment — option (b).

• It won the Nobel Peace Prize in 1977 and is independent of governments and the UN.

• It is not a UN refugee agency (a, that is UNHCR), an anti-poverty charity (c) or a medical agency (d).

• Hence option (b).

Why the other options are wrong

(a) an agency of the United Nations to help refugees of civil wars
UNHCR, not Amnesty, is the UN refugee agency.
(c) a non-governmental voluntary organization to help very poor people
Amnesty focuses on human rights, not poverty relief.
(d) an inter-governmental agency to cater to medical emergencies in war-ravaged regions
Medical emergencies are the work of MSF/ICRC.

Asked in the GS Paper I of the UPSC Civil Services Preliminary Examination 2015, held on 23 August 2015. Question and answer key: Union Public Service Commission. Explanation: UPSC Answer Check.

Reading the answer is not the same as getting it right under a clock. Practise this question with UPSC's negative marking, and anything you miss goes into an error notebook until you get it right twice.

Practise this paper free