International Affairs Questions and Answers

Answer: C

The report is released by the World Economic Forum.

The World Economic Forum has published the Global Gender Gap Report every year since 2006. It ranks countries on gender parity in four areas: economic participation and opportunity, educational attainment, health and survival, and political empowerment.

The World Bank publishes the Women, Business and the Law report, UNDP publishes the Gender Inequality Index in its Human Development Report, and UN Women works on gender equality but does not publish this report.

Answer: A

The correct statement is She reigned for 70 years and died at the age of 96 years.

Elizabeth II, born on 21 April 1926, became Queen on 6 February 1952 and died at Balmoral on 8 September 2022. Her reign of 70 years and 214 days is the longest of any British monarch, and she was 96 when she died; her Platinum Jubilee was celebrated in June 2022.

The other options get both the length of the reign and her age wrong.

Answer: C

The Act was passed by New Zealand.

New Zealand's Parliament passed the Plain Language Act in 2022. It requires public service agencies and Crown agents to use clear, concise and well-organised language, appropriate to the intended readers, in documents and on websites meant for the public.

Australia, Ireland and Germany have plain-language guidance but did not pass this Act. In Germany's case the official language is German, not English.

Answer: D

The country not in the Schengen zone is the United Kingdom.

The Schengen area abolishes passport controls at the internal borders of its member states. Belgium, Germany and Italy are all members; Belgium and Germany were among the original signatories of 1985.

The United Kingdom never joined the Schengen area even while it was in the European Union, keeping its own border controls, and it left the EU in 2020.

Answer: A

The answer is Only A is correct.

Under the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty, non-nuclear-weapon states undertake not to acquire nuclear weapons (Article II), so statement A is correct.

Statement B is wrong. The NPT does not oblige the nuclear-weapon states to destroy their arsenals; Article VI only requires each party to pursue negotiations in good faith on effective measures towards nuclear disarmament.

Answer: A

The largest corridor is Mexico - USA.

The World Migration Report 2024 identifies Mexico to the United States as the biggest international migration corridor, with about 11 million Mexican-born people living in the US.

Ukraine to Russia, Ukraine to Poland and India to Saudi Arabia are also large corridors, but none is as big as Mexico to the United States.

A migration corridor is the movement of people from one country of origin to one country of destination, measured by the number of migrants born in the first and living in the second.

Answer: D

The top-ranked country was Switzerland.

The UNDP's Human Development Report 2023/24 placed Switzerland first on the Human Development Index for 2022, with Norway second and Iceland third.

Australia, Denmark and Sweden were in the top ten but did not top the index. India ranked 134th.

The index combines life expectancy, years of schooling and gross national income per head into a single measure of human development.

Answer: C

The answer is Only B and C are correct.

Statement A is wrong. Germany was reunified on 3 October 1990, while the European Union was established by the Maastricht Treaty, which came into force on 1 November 1993. Its predecessor, the European Economic Community, was older, but the EU itself came after reunification.

Statement B is correct: the EU received the Nobel Peace Prize in 2012 for its contribution to peace and reconciliation in Europe. Statement C is correct: Brexit followed the referendum of 23 June 2016, in which the United Kingdom voted to leave.

Answer: C

The highest proportion of international migrants is in Oceania.

The IOM's World Migration Report 2024 shows that international migrants make up more than a fifth of Oceania's population, the highest share of any region, mainly because of the large migrant populations of Australia and New Zealand.

Europe and North America host larger absolute numbers of migrants, but migrants form a smaller share of their populations (roughly 12% and 16%). South America has a small share. The question asks about proportion, not numbers, which is the trap.

Answer: D

Among these regions, mortality is highest in the Eastern Mediterranean Region.

The WHO's World Health Statistics report deaths attributable to unsafe water, unsafe sanitation and lack of hygiene per 100 000 population, by WHO region. The highest rates are in the African and South-East Asia Regions, which are not among the options. Of the four regions given, the Eastern Mediterranean Region, which includes countries such as Afghanistan, Pakistan, Somalia, Sudan and Yemen, has the highest rate.

The European, Western Pacific and Americas Regions have much lower rates because most of their populations have safe water and sanitation.