12th July –Current Affairs

_{12th July –Current Affairs}

_{Amendments to POCSO ACT :}

_Ø   The Union Cabinet has approved a new definition for child pornography in its amendments to the POCSO Act, which is likely to be introduced in Parliament next week.

_Ø   Cabinet has approved the Amendments to the Protection of Children from Sexual Offences, POCSO, Act, 2012 to discourage the trend of child sexual abuse by acting as a deterrent due to strong penal provisions incorporated in the Act.

_Ø   It will make punishment more stringent for committing sexual crimes against children including the death penalty. 

_Ø   The amendments also provide for levy of fines and imprisonment to curb child pornography.

_Ø   The new definition of child pornography reads, “Any visual depiction of sexually explicit conduct involving a child which include photographs, video, digital or computer generated image indistinguishable from an actual child and an image created, adapted or modified but appear to depict a child.”

_Ø   Neither Section 67 of the IT Act nor Section 293 of the Indian Penal Code define child pornography. 

_{Common Wealth and Maldives :}

Ø External Affairs Minister S. Jaishankar conveyed India’s stand at the 19th Commonwealth Foreign Affairs Ministers Meeting in London. The support came weeks after PM Modi visited Maldives in his first overseas trip after his re-election.

Ø The Maldives withdrew from the Commonwealth during the tenure of President Abdullah Yameen in 2016.

Ø The Commonwealth is a voluntary association of 53 independent and equal sovereign states, nearly all of them former territories of the British Empire.

Ø Headquarters: London, United Kingdom.

Ø Member countries:

o   53 countries are members of the Commonwealth. The last country to join the Commonwealth was Rwanda in 2009.

o   All members have an equal say – regardless of size or economic stature. This ensures even the smallest member countries have a voice in shaping the Commonwealth.

Ø Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting (CHOGM): Every two years, members meet to discuss issues affecting the Commonwealth and the wider world at the Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting (CHOGM).

World Population Day  :

Ø World Population Day was observed on July 11, 2019.

Ø The day seeks to focus attention on the urgency and importance of population issues

Ø It was established by the then-Governing Council of the United Nations Development Programme  in 1989, an outgrowth of the interest generated by the Day of Five Billion, which was observed on 11 July 1987.

Ø The Day was first marked on 11 July 1990 in more than 90 countries.

Ø This year's World Population Day calls for global attention to the unfinished business of the 1994 International Conference on Population and Development.