Introduction

Adopted by the UN General Assembly in 2013, the Arms Trade Treaty (ATT) was the first — and remains the only — global, legally binding instrument to regulate the international trade in conventional weapons. Over a decade after its adoption, and amidst a challenging international security environment, the ATT remains an important and increasingly relevant mechanism for international cooperation, enduring as a critical tool for improving transparency of the arms trade, building confidence between States, and enabling multilateral engagement on issues of international security.

Article 13(3) of the ATT requires States Parties to provide information each year on their authorized or actual conventional arms exports and imports through an annual report submitted to the ATT Secretariat. Eleven years after annual reporting began, this report examines trends in the treaty’s mandatory annual reporting requirements and offers useful insights into how States are implementing the ATT, how they understand their ATT obligations, and where they face compliance challenges.

ATT Annual Reporting Obligation

Article 13(3): Each State Party shall submit annually to the Secretariat by 31 May a report for the preceding calendar year concerning authorized or actual exports and imports of conventional arms covered under Article 2 (1). Reports shall be made available, and distributed to States Parties by the Secretariat. The report submitted to the Secretariat may contain the same information submitted by the State Party to relevant United Nations frameworks, including the United Nations Register of Conventional Arms. Reports may exclude commercially sensitive or national security information.

This report examines annual reporting trends that have emerged since the first ATT annual reports were submitted in 2016, with a focus on the ATT reports submitted in 2026 (which encompass the arms exports and imports that occurred during the 2025 calendar year). Section 1 of this report concentrates on 2025 report compliance and overall submission rates. Section 2 studies annual reporting practices and trends, focusing on private reporting, report formats and templates, “nil” reporting, the withholding of commercially sensitive and/or national security information, and the use of national definitions and categories. Section 3 appraises whether and how States Parties reported on arms exports and imports in their 2025 reports. Section 4 compares ATT annual reporting to reporting under the UN Register of Conventional Arms (UNROCA).