Objective Information on Military Matters, Including Transparency of Military Expenditures

Who adopted this document and its mandates?

A Resolution of the General Assembly, under agenda item 90b Objective information on military matters, including transparency of military expenditures, published in 2017.

What other versions does this mandate have?

17 versions · 1994–2025

This is an older version — the most recent is A/RES/80/12

Year	Symbol	Title	Word length	Text similarity
2025	A/RES/80/12	Objective information on military matters, including transparency of military expenditures	1,364	98%Compare
2022	A/RES/77/33	Objective information on military matters, including transparency of military expenditures	1,343	99%Compare
2019	A/RES/74/24	Objective information on military matters, including transparency of military expenditures	1,338	85%Compare
2017	A/RES/72/20	Objective information on military matters, including transparency of military expenditures	1,515	84%Compare
2015	A/RES/70/21	Objective information on military matters, including transparency of military expenditures	1,416	87%Compare

Which reports were submitted under this mandate?

23 reports · 2005–2026

Year	Symbol	Title	Mandate resolution
2026	A/81/203	Objective information on military matters, including transparency of military expenditures report of the Secretary-General	A/RES/80/12
2025	A/80/225	Objective information on military matters, including transparency of military expenditures report of the Secretary-General	A/RES/77/33
2024	A/79/218	Objective information on military matters, including transparency of military expenditures report of the Secretary-General	A/RES/77/33
2023	A/78/158	Objective information on military matters, including transparency of military expenditures report of the Secretary-General	A/RES/77/33
2022	A/77/159	Objective information on military matters, including transparency of military expenditures report of the Secretary-General	A/RES/74/24

What subjects does this mandate have?

4 subjects

Information Exchange Military Budgets Military Expenditures Transparency in Armaments

What’s in this document?

24 operative paragraphs

Endorses the report of the Group of Governmental Experts to Review the Operation and Further Development of the United Nations Report on Military Expenditures;⁴

⁴A/72/293.

Calls upon Member States, with a view to achieving the broadest possible participation, to provide the Secretary-General, by 30 April annually, with a report on their military expenditures for the latest fiscal year for which data are available, using, preferably and to the extent possible, one of the online reporting forms, including, if appropriate, a nil report or the “single figure” report on military expenditures or any other format developed in the context of similar reporting on military expenditures to other international or regional organizations;

Recommends the guidelines and recommendations for objective information on military matters to all Member States for implementation, fully taking into account specific political, military and other conditions prevailing in a region, on the basis of initiatives and with the agreement of the States of the region concerned;

Invites Member States in a position to do so to supplement their reports, on a voluntary basis, with explanatory remarks regarding submitted data to explain or clarify the figures provided in the reporting forms, such as the total military expenditures as a share of gross domestic product, major changes from previous reports and any additional information reflecting their defence policy, military strategies and doctrines;

Invites Member States to provide, preferably with their annual report, information on their national points of contact;

Encourages relevant international bodies and regional organizations to promote transparency of military expenditures and to enhance complementarities among reporting systems, taking into account the particular characteristics of each region, and to consider the possibility of an exchange of information with the United Nations;

Takes note of the annual reports of the Secretary-General;⁵

⁵A/58/202 and A/58/202/Add.1, A/58/202/Add.2 and A/58/202/Add.3, A/59/192 and A/59/192/Add.1, A/60/159 and A/60/159/Add.1, A/60/159/Add.2 and A/60/159/Add.3, A/61/133 and A/61/133/Add.1, A/61/133/Add.2 and A/61/133/Add.3, A/62/158 and A/62/158/Add.1, A/62/158/Add.2 and A/62/158/Add.3, A/63/97 and A/63/97Add.1 and A/63/97/Add.2, A/64/113 and A/64/113/Add.1 and A/64/113/Add.2, A/65/118 and A/65/118/Corr.1 and A/65/118/Add.1 and A/65/118/Add.2, A/66/117 and A/66/117/Add.1, A/67/128 and A/67/128/Add.1, A/68/131 and A/68/131/Add.1, A/69/135 and A/69/135/Add.1, A/70/139 and A/70/139/Add.1 and A/71/115 and A/71/115/Add.1.

Requests the Secretary-General, within available resources:

To continue the practice of sending an annual note verbale to Member States requesting the submission of their report on military expenditures;

To circulate annually a note verbale to Member States detailing which reports on military expenditures were submitted and are available online;

To circulate to Member States the questionnaire contained in annex I to the report of the Group of Governmental Experts4 and to collect the responses from Member States and provide a summary thereof in advance of the seventy-fourth session of the General Assembly;

To continue consultations with relevant international bodies, with a view to ascertaining requirements for adjusting the present instrument in order to encourage wider participation, and to make recommendations, based on the outcome of those consultations and taking into account the views of Member States, on necessary changes to the content and structure of the standardized reporting system;

To encourage relevant international bodies and organizations to promote transparency of military expenditures and to consult with those bodies and organizations with emphasis on examining possibilities for enhancing complementarities among international and regional reporting systems and for exchanging related information between those bodies and the United Nations;

To continue to foster further cooperation with relevant regional organizations, with a view to raising awareness of the United Nations Report on Military Expenditures and its role as a confidence-building measure;

To encourage the United Nations regional centres for peace and disarmament in Africa, in Asia and the Pacific and in Latin America and the Caribbean to assist Member States in their regions in enhancing their knowledge of the standardized reporting system;

To promote international and regional or subregional symposiums and training seminars and to support the development of an online training course by the Office for Disarmament Affairs of the Secretariat, with the financial and technical support of interested States, with a view to explaining the purpose of the standardized reporting system, facilitating the electronic filing of reports and providing relevant technical instructions;

To report on experiences gained during such symposiums and training seminars;

To provide, upon request, technical assistance to Member States lacking the capacity to report data and to encourage Member States to voluntarily provide bilateral assistance to other Member States;

Encourages Member States:

To inform the Secretary-General about possible problems with the standardized reporting system and their reasons for not submitting the requested data;

To continue to provide the Secretary-General with their views and suggestions on ways and means to improve the future functioning of and broadened participation in the standardized reporting system, including necessary changes to its content and structure, as well as recommendations to facilitate its further development;

To complete the questionnaire contained in annex I to the report of the Group of Governmental Experts and to return it to the Secretary-General within the deadline to be set by him;

Recommends that the matter of the establishment of a process of periodic reviews of the Report on Military Expenditures and the timing of the next review be considered at the seventy-fourth session of the General Assembly, taking into account the results of the questionnaire referred to in paragraphs 8 (c) and 9 (c) above;

Decides to include in the provisional agenda of its seventy-fourth session, under the item entitled “Reduction of military budgets”, the sub-item entitled “Objective information on military matters, including transparency of military expenditures”.

Who adopted this document and its mandates?

What other versions does this mandate have?

Which reports were submitted under this mandate?

What subjects does this mandate have?

What’s in this document?

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