CDS (II) 2024 General Knowledge · Question 36 of 120

Correct — C, UNESCO. Three of the four bodies have a Nobel Peace Prize in their record and one does not. The World Food Programme won the prize in 2020, for its work against hunger and for its efforts to stop hunger being used as a weapon of war. The International Labour Organization won it in 1969, its fiftieth year. The Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees won it twice, in 1954 and again in 1981, and is the only UN body to have won more than once. The United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization has never received a Nobel Prize of any kind — individuals connected with it have, and it has instituted prizes of its own, but the organisation itself is not a laureate. So UNESCO is the exception the question is looking for.

• (a)WFP — The World Food Programme received the Nobel Peace Prize in 2020, the most recent UN body to be honoured before this paper was set.
• (b)ILO — The International Labour Organization received the Nobel Peace Prize in 1969, on its fiftieth anniversary; it is also the oldest UN specialised agency, founded in 1919.
• (d)UNHCR — The UN High Commissioner for Refugees has the strongest record of the four — the Peace Prize in 1954 and again in 1981, the only UN organisation to win it twice.

The Nobel Peace Prize has gone to United Nations bodies repeatedly: UNHCR in 1954 and 1981, UNICEF in 1965, the ILO in 1969, the UN Peacekeeping Forces in 1988, the United Nations together with Secretary-General Kofi Annan in 2001, the IAEA with Mohamed ElBaradei in 2005, the IPCC with Al Gore in 2007, the OPCW in 2013 and the World Food Programme in 2020. Knowing which bodies are on that list, and which are conspicuously absent, is a recurring examination point.

The safe route is to build the list of UN laureates you are sure of and see which option is missing from it. WFP 2020 is recent enough to be memorable; ILO 1969 and UNHCR 1954 and 1981 are standard. UNESCO is the trap precisely because it is so visible in the news — World Heritage sites, Memory of the World, International Mother Language Day — and visibility is easily mistaken for a prize. The stem also says 'Nobel Prize', not 'Nobel Peace Prize', which does not change the answer: UNESCO has received none in any category. One present-day line: the 2024 Peace Prize, announced a month after this paper was written, went to Nihon Hidankyo, an organisation of survivors of the atomic bombings, not to a UN body — so the UN list above is still current.

• The World Food Programme received the Nobel Peace Prize in 2020.
• The International Labour Organization received the Nobel Peace Prize in 1969 and is the oldest UN specialised agency, created in 1919 under the Treaty of Versailles.
• The Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees is the only UN organisation to have won the Peace Prize twice, in 1954 and 1981.
• UNICEF won in 1965, the UN Peacekeeping Forces in 1988, the United Nations with Kofi Annan in 2001, the IAEA with Mohamed ElBaradei in 2005 and the IPCC with Al Gore in 2007.
• The International Committee of the Red Cross has won three times, in 1917, 1944 and 1963, but it is not a United Nations body.

• Assuming UNESCO must be a laureate because it is the most-reported UN agency in India.
• Counting the International Committee of the Red Cross as a UN body when listing UN laureates — it is independent.
• Reading 'Nobel Prize' as 'Nobel Peace Prize' and looking only at the peace list; here it makes no difference, but the wording can matter.

As an odd-one-out over UN bodies and their prizes, or as a direct question on which UN organisation has won more than once.

• practice — not a real PYQ

  Which one of the following United Nations organisations received the Nobel Peace Prize in 2020?

  • (a)World Health Organization
  • (b)World Food Programme
  • (c)UNICEF
  • (d)UNHCR

  Answer(b) World Food Programme — awarded for its efforts to combat hunger and to prevent hunger being used as a weapon of war.

• practice — not a real PYQ

  The International Labour Organization, which received the Nobel Peace Prize in 1969, was established in which year?

  • (a)1919
  • (b)1929
  • (c)1945
  • (d)1948

  Answer(a) 1919 — created under the Treaty of Versailles and later the first specialised agency of the United Nations.