Brazil ratifies UN Arms Trade Pact

The Brazilian government has ratified the International Arms Trade Pact and issued a decree establishing global rules to regulate the sector nationally.

President Jair Bolsonaro and Foreign Minister Carlos Alberto França signed a decree reaffirming Brazil’s accession to the United Nations (UN) International Arms Trade Treaty four years ago.

The decree states that any revision or adjustment that could impose “burdensome burdens or obligations” on the country requires the National Congress’s approval and guarantees each state’s right to regulate and control conventional arms on its territory legally.

However, the text indicates that UN member states must prevent and eliminate illicit trafficking in conventional arms.

The “higher international control standards” sought by the treaty apply to eight types of weapons: Small arms and light weapons, combat aircraft, attack helicopters, armored combat vehicles, tanks, large-caliber artillery systems and warships, and missiles and rocket launchers.

In addition, each member country must, following its legislation, provide the UN Secretariat with copies of the control lists, which are made available to the other signatories to the Covenant.

In addition, one year after the treaty enters into force, each country must report to the secretariat on its measures to implement the treaty at the national level.

Brazil first signed the international treaty in 2013, during the term of Dilma Rousseff, and Michel Temer ratified it in 2018.

The country became a State Party to the treaty in November 2018, when it deposited its instrument of ratification at the United Nations in August 2018.