INTRODUCTION

Article 27 designates the Secretary-General of the United Nations (UN) as the Depositary of the Arms Trade Treaty (ATT). The designation and functions of the Depositary are the subject of Articles 76 and 77 of the Vienna Convention on the Law of Treaties (VCLT). Article 76 states: ‘[T]he designation of the depositary of a treaty may be made by the negotiating States, either in the treaty itself or in some other manner. The depositary may be one or more States, an international organization or the chief administrative officer of the organization’ (Art. 76(1)).

The designation of the Secretary-General of the UN as the Depositary has become common practice for multilateral treaties negotiated under the auspices of the UN. The ATT’s provision on the Depositary is very short given the generally accepted understanding of the specific functions of the Depositary as set out in Article 77(1) of the VCLT. Article 77(1) states these functions as the following:

(a) keeping custody of the original text of the treaty and of any full powers delivered to the depositary;

(b) preparing certified copies of the original text and preparing any further text of the treaty in such additional languages as may be required by the treaty and transmitting them to the parties and to the States entitled to become parties to the treaty;

(c) receiving any signatures to the treaty and receiving and keeping custody of any instruments, notifications and communications relating to it;

(d) examining whether the signature or any instrument, notification or communication relating to the treaty is in due and proper form and, if need be, bringing the matter to the attention of the State in question;

(e) informing the parties and the States entitled to become parties to the treaty of acts, notifications and communications relating to the treaty;

(f) informing the States entitled to become parties to the treaty when the number of signatures or of instruments of ratification, acceptance, approval or accession required for the entry into force of the treaty has been received or deposited;

(g) registering the treaty with the Secretariat of the United Nations;

(h) performing the functions specified in other provisions of the present Convention.