Priorities for African states negotiating for an Arms Trade Treaty

This policy brief by the Institute for Security Studies provides analysis and recommendations for African states participating in the United Nations negotiations for the Arms Trade Treaty (ATT) scheduled for March 2013. It argues that a legally binding international instrument is necessary to regulate the transfer of conventional arms, ammunition, and technology to preserve human security and prevent human suffering, particularly in Africa, which is heavily impacted by armed conflict.

• African states generally advocate for the inclusion of ammunition within the scope of the Arms Trade Treaty (ATT), arguing that the human cost of ammunition outweighs the administrative burden of regulating it.
• The document recommends expanding the ATT's scope to explicitly include munitions, ammunition, parts, and components in Article 2(A)(1), as current UN Register definitions exclude certain military technologies, vehicles, aircraft, and lower-calibre artillery.
• To ensure the treaty is effective, the author suggests that Article 4 should be strengthened to mandate the refusal, suspension, or revocation of arms transfers likely to violate international humanitarian law (IHL) or international human rights law (IHRL).
• The brief identifies several 'loopholes' in the draft text, including Article 5(2) regarding defence cooperation agreements, which could allow states to ignore ATT obligations, and Article 3(3), which the author claims is too weak regarding the facilitation of genocide.
• The author recommends increasing the record-keeping requirement for arms transfers from 10 years to 20 years to align with the International Tracing Instrument and account for the longevity of conventional arms.
• The document proposes lowering the threshold for the treaty's entry into force from 65 ratifications to 30 ratifications to accelerate the process.
• The brief suggests replacing the consensus rule for treaty amendments in Article 20(3) with a two-thirds majority vote as a last resort to prevent a single state from blocking future developments.

APA

Dube, G. (2013). Priorities for African states negotiating for an Arms Trade Treaty. Institute for Security Studies. https://issafrica.s3.amazonaws.com/site/uploads/PolBrief38.pdf

Chicago

Dube, Gugu. Priorities for African states negotiating for an Arms Trade Treaty. Institute for Security Studies, 2013. https://issafrica.s3.amazonaws.com/site/uploads/PolBrief38.pdf.

Wikipedia

{{cite report |last1=Dube |first1=Gugu |title=Priorities for African states negotiating for an Arms Trade Treaty |publisher=Institute for Security Studies |date=7 March 2013 |url=https://issafrica.s3.amazonaws.com/site/uploads/PolBrief38.pdf |access-date=17 August 2026 |via=Climate Insights Directory}}

BibTeX

@techreport{dube2013priorities, author = {Dube, Gugu}, title = {{Priorities for African states negotiating for an Arms Trade Treaty}}, institution = {Institute for Security Studies}, year = {2013}, month = mar, url = {https://issafrica.s3.amazonaws.com/site/uploads/PolBrief38.pdf}, urldate = {2026-08-17}, note = {Indexed by Climate Insights Directory} }