Universalization and Effective Implementation of the Arms Trade Treaty in Africa Lessons learned from the 2024 Monrovia Workshop

The 10th anniversary of the entry into force of the Arms Trade Treaty (ATT) in 2024 marked a pivotal moment for assessing global and regional efforts in ATT universalization and implementation. African States, in particular West African states, played a leading role in the successful negotiation of the ATT and its early entry into force in December 2014.

With this in mind, the Liberia National Commission on Arms (LiNCA) and UNIDIR decided to organize the Monrovia Workshop to Support Universalization and Effective Implementation of the Arms Trade Treaty to provide the first pan-African platform to take stock of and share information on how African states have overcome challenges to becoming states parties to the ATT and in implementing the treaty’s provisions. With sponsorship from the ATT Voluntary Trust Fund, LiNCA and UNIDIR convened the four-day Monrovia Workshop on 18–21 March 2024. The workshop brought together  representatives from the national governments of 19 African states, as well as representatives from the ATT Secretariat, the African Union, the Economic Community of West African States, the Intergovernmental Authority on Development, the Regional Centre on Small Arms and the Southern African Development Community.

This report summarizes the key findings from the pre-workshop questionnaire and the exchanges that took place during the workshop. It provides effective measures and lessons learned from the workshop that can be useful for ATT states parties, signatories and other stakeholders in Africa, as well as other regions.

Citation: Anna Mensah-Sackey and Paul Holtom, “Universalization and Effective Implementation of the Arms Trade Treaty in Africa Lessons learned from the 2024 Monrovia Workshop”, UNIDIR, Geneva, 2024.