Protocol against the Illicit Manufacturing of and Trafficking in Firearms
The Protocol against the Illicit Manufacturing and Trafficking in Firearms, Their Parts and Components and Ammunition is a treaty on anti-arms trafficking including Small Arms and Light Weapons that is supplemental to the Convention against Transnational Organized Crime. It is one of the so-called Palermo protocols.
The Protocol was adopted by the United Nations General Assembly as Resolution 55/255 on 31 May 2001; the treaty entered into force on 3 July 2005. It was signed by 52 parties and as of May 2020 it has 118 parties, including 116 states and the European Union.
The states that have signed the protocol but have not yet ratified it are Australia, Canada, China, Germany, Iceland, Japan, Luxembourg, Monaco, Seychelles, and United Kingdom. In May 2019, France was the sole among the top six arms exporting countries to have ratified the protocol. The other five – United States, Russia, Germany, China, and United Kingdom – had not.
