Research and Reports

ATT Gender Action Plan Project II

This paper represents the culmination of the ATT Gender Action Plan Project initiated by Control Arms in 2022, generously supported by the Government of Canada.

The methodology involves a comprehensive approach, utilizing data gathered through surveys and open-source analysis, focusing on gender-related commitments made during CSP5. The initial phase involved a meticulous examination of the composition of delegations from CSP5 to CSP9. Specific indicators, including the representation of women in delegations, the involvement of women in facilitating ATT working groups, and the gender makeup of the ATT Sponsorship Programme, thematic panels, and side events, were scrutinized.

To increase our understanding, a survey was distributed to ATT States Parties and Signatories in October 2023. The survey sought information on four key areas: (i) gender-balanced representation in ATT-related decision-making processes, (ii) the gendered impact of armed violence within the context of the ATT, (iii) the implementation of Gender-Based Violence (GBV) related risk assessments, and (iv) the consideration of gender and GBV in Voluntary Trust Fund (VTF) projects. A follow-up questionnaire with a condensed set of queries was administered to selected governments.

Also available in SPANISH & FRENCH

ATT Gender Action Plan Project

The methodology and the survey, contained in this publication, provide ways to measure States and other stakeholders’ progress towards implementing the CSP5 decisions and recommendations.

Factsheet: Gender and the Arms Trade Treaty

This factsheet offers information about gender-based violence, including recommendations to ensure effective implementation of the ATT and to tackle the gendered impacts of armed violence. It also outlines the current state of gender balance in ATT meetings and provides ideas to promote gender equality in conventional arms control.

Interpreting the Arms Trade Treaty: International Human Rights Law and Gender-Based Violence in Article 7 Risk Assessments

This paper provides interpretive guidance on key terms that appear in Article 7, namely and examines how gender and risks of GBV are relevant to each part of the Article 7 risk assessment.

Question & Answer Sheet: Serious Human Rights Violations and Gender-Based Violence in the Arms Trade Treaty

This Question & Answer Sheet provides guidance on what constitutes a serious violation of international human rights law and how gender-based violence relates to the risk assessment.

Fact sheet on Gender in the ATT

To support delegations in mainstreaming gender across the different sections of the Arms Trade Treaty, the International Gender Champions Disarmament Impact Group and Control Arms launched a factsheet with key information and recommendations.

How to Use the Arms Trade Treaty to Address Gender-based Violence: A Practical Guide for Risk Assessment 

This practical guide offers advice to practitioners and state representatives engaged in export assessments required under the ATT in relation to GBV. It offers useful indicators, guidelines and emerging principles to help develop the requisite expertise and experience to meaningfully incorporate GBV into export assessments

Also available in FRENCH & SPANISH

Arms Trade Treaty Regional Actors Handbook

The Regional Actors project – which was initiated with the generous support of Germany – takes stock of the work of Regional Organizations to better understand how they contribute to ATT promotion, universalization, and implementation efforts and to identify opportunities for further engagement of Regional Organizations in supporting the ATT.

Arms Trade Treaty Regional Actor Study

This publication highlights key findings, provides lessons learned and sets out recommendations on how ATT stakeholders can continue to foster engagement by regional organizations in ATT universalization and implementation efforts.

Also available in FRENCH & SPANISH

Goals not Guns: How the Sustainable Development Goals and the Arms Trade Treaty are Interlinked

This case study explores these interconnections between the ATT and the SDGs. It shows how there are opportunities to address complementary obligations through Official Development Assistance (ODA), and argues that there is a need for more direct and practical engagement between arms experts and the development community. 

Also available in FRENCH

Coming Full Circle: The relevance of Arms Control and Disarmament Instruments to Target 16.4and the 2030 Agenda

This policy brief identifies and describes how key international conventional arms control and disarmament agreements can support States towards national action on Target 16.4, andd facilitate monitoring and reporting on progress.  It also illustrates how reporting mechanisms of these agreements can serve as a measure of progress in evaluating Target 16.4. 

Achieving ATT Universalization in Africa

This briefing paper examines obstacles facing some of the countries in Africa who are yet to become States Parties to the ATT. It provides an overview of the Treaty’s status across the continent, and features six case studies that investigate specific barriers, actual or perceived, that have hindered membership. 

Also available in FRENCH

How to use the Arms Trade Treaty to address violence against children: A Practical Guide for Risk Assessment

The Arms Trade Treaty (ATT) is the world’s first binding instrument acknowledging and establishing obligations regarding the link between arms transfers and violence against children (VAC). This practical guide aims to enable states to conduct thorough national assessments of export risks related to VAC. The guide provides criteria, indicators, and credible information sources that can be integrated into export risk evaluations for VAC. By assisting licensing officers in identifying pertinent information for VAC risk assessment, the guide aims to facilitate well-informed decision-making on export applications in accordance with their ATT obligations.

Roadmap for Action: Toward A Transparent Arms Trade Treaty

This policy analysis explores the overall transparency challenge faced by the ATT in the areas of reporting, process and risk assessment and suggests possible pathways forward to enhance and further support ATT States Parties in fulfilling the transparency objectives of the ATT.

Taming the Devil Within: How to use the Arms Trade Treaty to Address Diversion in Latin America

This report, written as part of the“ATT Academy in Latin America” program,  offers specific advice to policymakers and advocates seeking to use the framework of the ATT to assess and mitigate the risks of diversion, particularly in Latin America. The report demonstrates the need for transparency, information sharing and international cooperation, and encourages the rigorous implementation of the ATT, in line with other relevant international and regional instruments

How to Use the Arms Trade Treaty to Address Armed Violence in Pastoralist Communities 

This report was written for the “ATT Academy for East and Horn of Africa”, a project of Pace University and Control Arms funded by the United Nations Trust Facility for Supporting Cooperation on Arms Regulation (UNSCAR).  This report builds on earlier explorations of possible uses of the ATT for addressing wildlife crime published by Control Arms in 2016 and incorporates information gathered from qualitative fieldwork undertaken in a series of visits to Uganda and Kenya from 2014 to 2016. Also available in FRENCH.

How to Use the Arms Trade Treaty to Address Wildlife Crime

This report offers specific advice to policymakers and advocates seeking to use the framework of the ATT to assess and mitigate the risk that arms transfers will be diverted to poaching networks or exacerbate the negative impacts of militarizing wildlife protection. Also available in FRENCH.

Using the Arms Trade Treaty to Address Wildlife Poaching in East Africa: A Human Security Approach

This policy brief explores the potential for the Arms Trade Treaty (ATT) to be applied to curb the supply of weapons to wildlife poaching and trafficking networks in East Africa. This paper advocates for a human security and sustainable development-centered approach to wildlife crime, while taking care not to formulate generalizations of the many complex contexts of wildlife poaching in East Africa.

2013