Developments and trends, 2024

In 2024, despite protracted crises in the Middle East, Haiti, the Horn of Africa, the Sahel and Ukraine, regional activities to sustain peace and support disarmament, non-proliferation and arms control goals demonstrated effectiveness and resilience. The aims of those initiatives included preventing the proliferation of weapons of mass destruction and countering the illicit manufacturing of and trade in conventional arms, particularly small arms, light weapons and their ammunition. The United Nations actively engaged in such efforts with States, regional and subregional organizations, relevant international organizations and civil society, through various means including exchanges and dialogues, capacity-building projects and information campaigns.

Multilateral arms regulations and disarmament agreements on weapons of mass destruction achieved notable advances in 2024 across Africa, Latin America and the Caribbean, and Asia and the Pacific. The Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons was ratified by four States: Indonesia, Sao Tome and Principe, Sierra Leone and Solomon Islands. Papua New Guinea ratified the Comprehensive Nuclear-Test-Ban Treaty, while Mozambique, Palau and Seychelles ratified the International Convention for the Suppression of Acts of Nuclear Terrorism. The Federated States of Micronesia and Tuvalu acceded to the Biological Weapons Convention. In addition, Colombia ratified the Outer Space Treaty; Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates acceded to the Antarctic Treaty; Gambia and Malawi became parties to the Arms Trade Treaty; and Trinidad and Tobago joined the Convention on Certain Conventional Weapons and its Protocols. Meanwhile, Saudi Arabia withdrew from the Moon Treaty.

The Office for Disarmament Affairs, for its part, worked through its three regional centres throughout the year to deepen collaboration with various regional and subregional organizations, both identifying new opportunities and reinforcing existing mechanisms for regional dialogue on security and arms control.

The United Nations Regional Centre for Peace and Disarmament in Africa, located in Togo, provided targeted support against the widespread proliferation of small arms and light weapons, a trend driven by violent extremism, political instability, porous borders and weak state control. In December, the Regional Centre conducted its first assessment mission in Burundi in support of the Modular Small-arms- control Implementation Compendium (MOSAIC). The five-day technical mission supported the Government in preparing a national action plan against illicit firearms proliferation, while also assessing challenges around arms marking and the country’s progress in implementing the Programme of Action on Small Arms and Light Weapons.

Marking a milestone in the African Union’s cooperation with the United Nations on small arms control, the Regional Centre supported a commemoration of Africa Amnesty Month in Bangui in September (for more information on Africa Amnesty Month, see chap. 3). Held in partnership with the African Union Peace and Security Council, the two-day event celebrated the broader annual initiative declared in 2017 to raise awareness about the dangers of illicit small-arms proliferation and to encourage the voluntary surrender of small arms and light weapons illegally held by civilians. The commemoration included the ceremonial destruction of 144 AK-47 rifles in support of the wider effort to reduce the availability of illicit arms. Similar activities in support of Africa Amnesty Month also took place in Djibouti and Rwanda with the Regional Centre’s support.

Based in Lima, the United Nations Regional Centre for Peace, Disarmament and Development in Latin America and the Caribbean continued leading efforts to advance regional small-arms-control mechanisms, including implementation of the Roadmap for Implementing the Caribbean Priority Actions on the Illicit Proliferation of Firearms and Ammunition across the Caribbean in a Sustainable Manner by 2030 (Caribbean Firearms Roadmap), and the development of a similar initiative in Central America. To help advance the Caribbean initiative, the Centre continued to support States in conducting baseline assessments and pursuing implementation. One State — the Bahamas — drafted its national implementation action plan for the Roadmap, bringing to 13 the total number of States to have done so since the Roadmap’s adoption in 2020.^[1] In 2024, as Caribbean States placed a specific focus on data collection and reporting under the Roadmap, the Regional Centre offered support in the form of newly launched guidance on monitoring and evaluation. During the fourth Annual Meeting of States in November, Caribbean States reviewed progress under the Roadmap, discussed challenges and achievements, and established priorities for the Roadmap’s 2025 midterm review.

The United Nations Regional Centre for Peace and Disarmament in Asia and the Pacific, based in Nepal, continued bringing together States to discuss issues such as conventional arms control, weapons of mass destruction and emerging technologies. The Centre implemented multiple projects in partnership with the Biological Weapons Convention Implementation Support Unit to assist Governments in the region with biosafety and biosecurity challenges. In October, with support from China and the Lao People’s Democratic Republic, the Centre facilitated a biosecurity discussion among member States of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) in Shenzhen, China. The following month, in collaboration with the Republic of Korea, the Centre held the twenty-third Republic of Korea-United Nations Joint Conference on Disarmament and Non-Proliferation Issues, focusing on the fiftieth anniversary of the Biological Weapons Convention. In December, the Centre and the Implementation Support Unit co-hosted a side event on the margins of the Working Group on the strengthening of the Convention to share outcomes and insights from the previous events with all Member States.

Additionally, all three regional centres supported a new pilot initiative, funded by UNSCAR, aimed at strengthening the disarmament-development nexus in line with the Pact for the Future and the New Agenda for Peace. The centres planned to continue expanding their support to United Nations country teams to help to integrate arms control into common country analyses and country development frameworks.