The Arms Trade Treaty

Who adopted this document and its mandates?

A Resolution of the General Assembly, under agenda item 103bb The Arms Trade Treaty, published in 2020.

What else is in this group?

16 documents · 2010–2025

Newer documents in this group exist (latest: 2025).

Year	Symbol	Title	Word length	Text similarity
2025	A/RES/80/46	The Arms Trade Treaty	1,940	–
2024	A/RES/79/52	The Arms Trade Treaty	1,901	–
2023	A/RES/78/48	The Arms Trade Treaty	1,733	–
2022	A/RES/77/62	The Arms Trade Treaty	1,568	–
2021	A/RES/76/50	The Arms Trade Treaty	1,535	–

This group bundles related documents that are not individually ordered.

What subjects does this mandate have?

3 subjects

Arms Transfers Illicit Arms Trafficking Treaties

What’s in this document?

17 operative paragraphs

Welcomes the decisions taken by the Sixth Conference of States Parties to the Arms Trade Treaty, held by written procedure from 17 to 21 August 2020, and notes that the Seventh Conference of States Parties will be held in Geneva from 30 August to 3 September 2021;

Also welcomes the ongoing progress by the standing working groups on effective treaty implementation, on transparency and reporting, and on universalization in advancing the object and purpose of the Arms Trade Treaty;

Recognizes that the consolidation of the institutional structure of the Treaty provides a framework for supporting further work under the Treaty, in particular its effective implementation, in this regard expresses concern about the unpaid assessed contributions of States and the potential adverse implications that this has for the Treaty processes, and calls upon States that have not yet done so to address their financial obligations under the Treaty in a prompt and timely manner;

Calls upon all States that have not yet done so to ratify, accept, approve or accede to the Treaty, in accordance with their respective constitutional processes, in order to achieve its universalization;

Calls upon all States parties to submit and encourages them to make available, in a timely manner, and to update, as appropriate, their initial reports, as well as their annual reports for the preceding calendar year, as required under article 13 of the Treaty, thereby enhancing confidence, transparency, trust and accountability, and welcomes the ongoing efforts of the working group on transparency and reporting to facilitate compliance by States parties with their reporting obligations;

Calls upon those States parties in a position to do so to provide assistance, including legal or legislative assistance, institutional capacity-building and technical, material or financial assistance, to requesting States in order to promote the implementation and universalization of the Treaty;

Stresses the vital importance of the full and effective implementation of and compliance with all provisions of the Treaty by States parties, and urges States parties to meet their obligations under the Treaty, thereby contributing to international and regional peace, security and stability, to the reduction of human suffering and to the promotion of cooperation, transparency and responsible action;

Recognizes the complementarity among all relevant international instruments on conventional arms and the Treaty, and to this end urges all States to implement effective national measures to prevent, combat and eradicate the illicit and unregulated trade in conventional arms and ammunition in fulfilment of their respective international obligations and commitments;

Urges States parties and signatory States to prevent and eradicate the illicit trade in conventional arms, including small arms and light weapons, as set out in articles 6 and 7 of the Treaty, and to prevent diversion and unauthorized end use or end users of conventional arms, inter alia through efforts to improve efficient stockpile management;

Recognizes the added value of the adoption in June 2018 of the report of the third United Nations Conference to Review Progress Made in the Implementation of the Programme of Action to Prevent, Combat and Eradicate the Illicit Trade in Small Arms and Light Weapons in All Its Aspects,⁶ including the outcome document annexed thereto, and acknowledges synergies between the Programme of Action and the Treaty;

⁶A/CONF.192/2018/RC/3.

Encourages further steps to enable States to increasingly prevent and tackle the diversion of conventional arms and ammunition to unauthorized end uses or end users during the entire life cycle of the items, and recognizes that enhancing reporting rates, transparency and information-sharing, in line with Treaty obligations, is fundamental to achieving this goal;

Welcomes the establishment of the Diversion Information Exchange Forum by the Sixth Conference of States Parties to allow, on a voluntary basis, States parties and signatory States to share concrete and operational information about cases of suspected or detected diversion, and acknowledges that this is a step towards tackling diversion by enhancing information-sharing and a tool to improve practical implementation of the Treaty;

Recalls the adoption of action-oriented decisions on gender and gender-based violence by the Fifth Conference of States Parties and the fact that States parties agreed to review progress on these two aspects on an ongoing basis, and in that respect encourages States parties and signatory States to ensure the full and equal participation of women and men in pursuing the object and purpose of the Treaty;

Welcomes the continued support through the voluntary trust fund for the implementation of the Treaty, encourages eligible States to make best use of the voluntary trust fund, and encourages all States parties in a position to do so to contribute to the voluntary trust fund;

Encourages States parties and signatory States in a position to do so to provide funding to the Treaty sponsorship programme to support participation in meetings under the Treaty for those States that would otherwise be unable to attend;

Encourages States parties to strengthen their cooperation with civil society, including non-governmental organizations, industry and relevant international organizations and to work with other States parties at the national and regional levels, and invites those stakeholders, in particular those that are underrepresented in Treaty processes, to engage further with States parties with the aim of ensuring the effective implementation and universalization of the Treaty;

Decides to include in the provisional agenda of its seventy-sixth session, under the item entitled “General and complete disarmament”, the sub-item entitled “The Arms Trade Treaty”, and to review the implementation of the present resolution at that session.

Who adopted this document and its mandates?

What else is in this group?

What subjects does this mandate have?

What’s in this document?

Table of contents