The Arms Trade Treaty

Who adopted this document and its mandates?

A Resolution of the General Assembly, under agenda item 99y The Arms Trade Treaty, published in 2025.

What else is in this group?

16 documents · 2010–2025

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?

4 subjects

Arms Transfers Illicit Arms Trafficking Treaties Treaty Compliance

What’s in this document?

20 operative paragraphs

Welcomes the decisions taken by the Eleventh Conference of States Parties to the Arms Trade Treaty, held in person with a livestreaming option from 25 to 29 August 2025, which included a discussion on universalization as a priority theme for the Conference, and notes that the Twelfth Conference of States Parties will be held in Geneva from 24 to 28 August 2026;

Recalls the political declaration for the next decade of the Treaty, introduced by the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland and endorsed by the relevant States Parties,⁸ and welcomes the adoption by the Conference of the decision to elaborate elements of a draft five-year strategy, to be put to a decision no later than the Thirteenth Conference of States Parties;

⁸Albania, Andorra, Argentina, Australia, Austria, Bahamas (The), Barbados, Belgium, Belize, Benin, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Brazil, Bulgaria, Cameroon, Canada, Central African Republic, Chile, Costa Rica, Côte d’Ivoire, Croatia, Cyprus, Czechia, Denmark, Dominican Republic, El Salvador, Estonia, Finland, France, Gambia, Georgia, Germany, Greece, Guatemala, Guinea, Guyana, Hungary, Iceland, Ireland, Italy, Japan, Latvia, Liberia, Liechtenstein, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Madagascar, Malta, Mexico, Montenegro, Netherlands (Kingdom of the), New Zealand, North Macedonia, Norway, Panama, Paraguay, Peru, Philippines, Poland, Portugal, Republic of Korea, Republic of Moldova, Romania, Samoa, San Marino, Serbia, Sierra Leone, Slovakia, Slovenia, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, Uruguay and Zambia.

Recognizes the cumulative body of decisions adopted by the Conference of States Parties to the Arms Trade Treaty, which have progressively strengthened the Treaty’s contributions to international peace and security, human rights and humanitarian dimensions, and encourages States Parties and other stakeholders to continue discussions on how relevant developments on human rights and international humanitarian law instruments apply in the context of the Treaty, as appropriate;

Welcomes the continuing progress by the standing working groups on effective treaty implementation, including the important work undertaken in the context of its sub-working groups on articles 6 and 7, on exchange of national implementation practices and current and emerging implementation issues, on transparency and reporting and on universalization in advancing the object and purpose of the 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, and in this regard expresses serious concern about the unpaid assessed contributions of States and the adverse implications that this situation entails for the Treaty processes, and urges 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 and to prevent their diversion;

Recalls the consensus final report of the fourth 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,⁹ in June 2024, and its potential synergies and complementarities with the Treaty, including on issues of diversion;

⁹A/CONF.192/2024/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;

Appreciates the continuing work of the Diversion Information Exchange Forum, and encourages States Parties and signatory States to actively use the Forum and to share, on a voluntary basis, concrete and operational information about cases of suspected or detected diversion, and acknowledges that this is an important step towards tackling diversion by enhancing information-sharing and international cooperation, and a tool to improve practical implementation of the Treaty;

Recalls the adoption of action-oriented decisions on gender and gender-based violence endorsed by the Fifth Conference of States Parties and the invitation by the Tenth Conference of States Parties to future presidencies to review the implementation of those decisions, encourages and welcomes efforts of States Parties to contribute to the progress on these two aspects, and in that respect encourages States Parties and signatory States to ensure the full, equal and meaningful participation of women and men in pursuing the object and purpose of the Treaty, and in this regard welcomes the establishment of Gender Focal Points under the Treaty at the Eleventh Conference of States Parties;

Welcomes the efforts to strengthen the meaningful participation, engagement and leadership of young people in efforts for the implementation and universalization of the Treaty;

Also welcomes the continued support through the voluntary trust fund for the implementation and universalization of the Treaty, and encourages all States Parties in a position to do so to contribute to the fund;

Encourages eligible States to make best use of the voluntary trust fund, as well as other international, regional and national outreach and assistance programmes, and share information on their implementation efforts on a voluntary basis;

Encourages States Parties and signatory States in a position to do so to provide funding to the Treaty sponsorship programme to support and maximize the scale and diversity of participation of experts from States 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 eighty-first 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?

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What’s in this document?

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