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On 2 April 2013, the UN General Assembly approved the text of the Arms Trade Treaty. A total of 154 States voted in favour of the resolution, three voted against, and 23 abstained. The treaty will now be opened for signature on 3 June 2013. The conclusion of negotiations represent a major achievement of the process that lasted for over 10 years. The treaty is a strong and balanced text that clearly enjoys very widespread support, and will significantly reduce the humanitarian impact from the irresponsible transfer of weapons once it enters into force. During the final phase of negotiations on 18-28 March 2013 Lithuania, together with Costa Rica and Japan, worked on a proposal that would ensure that key information provided by States under the ATT would be available to public.

The proposal was eventually supported by over 60 countries from all regions. Lithuania is of the view that current formulation of Article 13 of the Treaty opens a possibility to make such key information publicly available.


The following states supported the proposal on public reporting:

Costa Rica, Japan, Lithuania, Australia, Austria, Belgium, Benin, CARICOM (Antigua and Barbuda, the Bahamas, Barbados, Belize, Dominica, Grenada, Guyana, Haiti, Jamaica, Saint Lucia, St. Kitts and Nevis, St. Vincent and the Grenadines, Suriname, Trinidad and Tobago), Chile, Colombia, Cyprus, Czech Republic, Denmark, Dominican Republic, El Salvador, Estonia, Germany, Greece, Finland, France, Honduras, Hungary, Iceland, Ireland, Italy, Latvia, Liechtenstein, Luxembourg, Malta, Mexico, Montenegro, Netherlands, New Zealand, Norway, Paraguay, Papua New Guinea, Philippines, Poland, Portugal, Romania, Serbia, Slovakia, Slovenia, Spain, Sweden, Thailand, Turkey, Uruguay and the United Kingdom.

Lithuanian national statement on public reporting delivered at the Final Conference of the ATT on 20 March 2013:

"Mr. President, Since I have the floor, let me add some remarks in my national capacity.

Lithuania has long been supportive to increasing transparency in disarmament and arms control forums. While Article 10 of the July 26 ATT draft contains provisions on initial and annual reporting, it lacks a clear reference that reports by States Parties should be made available to the public. In practice, this might mean that although all States Parties can consult such reports, they would not be considered a “public source”, which could severely limit their use in the field of research, statistics, and academic work.

The national reports submitted by States Parties/Participating States are already publicly available for most conventional arms control and disarmament instruments, including the UN Convention on Certain Conventional Weapons (Compliance mechanisms and Additional Protocols II and V), UN Programme of Action on Small arms and light weapons, UN Register for Conventional Arms and Report on Military Expenditures.

We believe that this small amendment in Article 10 will bring the draft ATT in line with the established practice and would contribute to promoting transparency in arms trade and thus building confidence among States.

Thank you."