ATT Secretariat

The ATT Secretariat is the permanent support body established under Article 18 of the Arms Trade Treaty (ATT), which was adopted by the UN General Assembly in 2013 and entered into force on 24 December 2014. The Secretariat is headquartered in Geneva, Switzerland, a location selected by states parties at the First Conference of States Parties (CSP1) held in Cancún in 2015.

Its mandate, set out in Article 18(3), is deliberately narrow and administrative rather than supervisory. Core functions include:

• Receiving, making available, and distributing national reports submitted under Article 13 (initial reports on implementation measures and annual reports on authorised or actual exports and imports of conventional arms).
• Maintaining and publishing the list of national points of contact.
• Facilitating the matching of assistance offers and requests for treaty implementation, including under the Voluntary Trust Fund (VTF) established at CSP2 in 2016.
• Supporting the work of the annual Conference of States Parties, its working groups, and the rotating CSP Presidency.

The Secretariat is led by a Head, appointed by states parties. It operates on a modest budget funded by assessed contributions from states parties and signatory states, with the scale of assessments based on the UN scale adjusted for participation.

The Secretariat does not verify the accuracy of national reports, investigate alleged violations, or interpret treaty obligations — these remain the prerogative of states parties. This restrained design reflected concerns during the 2012–2013 negotiations that a stronger institutional body could intrude on national export-control decisions. Civil society organisations such as the Control Arms coalition and the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute (SIPRI) regularly engage with Secretariat-published data to track compliance and transparency trends.