The Executive Director of FOSDA, Mrs Theodora Williams Anti participated in a high level meeting on Ghana’s implementation on the UN Arms Trade Treaty (ATT). The meeting was organized by the Ghana National Commission on Small Arms with support from the African Union (AU) and the Bicc.

The meeting was held from 23rd to 25th February 2023 at the Volta Hotel in Akosombo. In attendance were representatives of the Office of the President, Parliamentary Committee on defense and Interior, AU, Security agencies and CSOs. The meeting discussed the status of Ghana’s implementation of the ground-breaking international Arms Control instrument, the ATT. It reviewed the success and challenges facing the implementation since Ghana ratified the ATT in 2015. Participants collectively agreed that the lack of a competent agency to lead the implementation in Ghana is a major gap impeding the process.

FOSDA is therefore calling on the Government of Ghana through the Ministry for the Interior and the Small Arms Commission to double efforts to review the National Commission for Small Arms and Light Weapons Act 2007 (Act 736) to enable effective implementation of the ATT. Without the review of the mandate of the Small Arms Commission, Ghana does not have a competent agency to lead the implementation of the ATT. Though Ghana ratified the ATT in 2015, implementation and reporting has stalled.

This gap in Ghana’s implementation of the ATT questions Government’s commitment to national and international Arms control and the security and safety of it’s citizens.