Sierra Leone
The Minister of Foreign Affairs and International Cooperation of Sierra Leone, Timothy Musa Kabba, deposited his state’s instrument of ratification for the Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons (TPNW) with the UN Secretary-General at a high-level ceremony in New York on 24 September 2024, following the approval of the Parliament of Sierra Leone earlier in the year. Sierra Leone was the equal 71st State to ratify or accede to the TPNW and the 17th African state to do so.1
TPNW Status
| Key weapons of mass destruction treaties | ||
|---|---|---|
| NUCLEAR WEAPONS | ||
| Party to the TPNW | Yes (Ratified 2024) | |
| Party to the NPT | Yes (Acceded 1975) | |
| Ratified the CTBT | Yes (Ratified 2001) | |
| Party to an NWFZ | No (Signed 1996, Pelindaba) | |
| CSA with the IAEA | Yes (In force 2009) | |
| AP with the IAEA | No (Signed 2022) | |
| BIOLOGICAL AND CHEMICAL WEAPONS | ||
| Party to the BWC | Yes (Ratified 1976) | |
| Party to the CWC | Yes (Ratified 2004) | |
| TPNW Art. 1(1) prohibitions: Compliance in 2024 | ||
|---|---|---|
| (a) | Develop, produce, manufacture, acquire | Compliant |
| Possess or stockpile | Compliant | |
| Test | Compliant | |
| (b) | Transfer | Compliant |
| (c) | Receive transfer or control | Compliant |
| (d) | Use | Compliant |
| Threaten to use | Compliant | |
| (e) | Assist, encourage or induce | Compliant |
| (f) | Seek or receive assistance | Compliant |
| (g) | Allow stationing, installation, deployment | Compliant |
| TPNW voting and participation | |
|---|---|
| UNGA resolution on TPNW (latest vote) | Voted yes (2024) |
| Participated in 2MSP (2023) | Yes (observer) |
| Participated in 1MSP (2022) | No |
| Average MSP delegation size (% women) | 2 (0%) |
| Adoption of TPNW (7 July 2017) | Voted yes |
| Participated in TPNW negotiations (2017) | Yes |
| Negotiation mandate (A/RES/71/258) | Voted yes |
| Fissile material | |
|---|---|
| Nuclear facilities | No |
| Fissile material production | No |
| HEU stocks | No |
| Plutonium stocks | No |
| SQP with the IAEA | Yes (Modified) |
Latest developments
In January 2024, Sierra Leone upgraded to a Modified Small Quantities Protocol (SQP) with the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA).
At a ministerial-level meeting of the UN Security Council on nuclear disarmament and non-proliferation in March 2024, Sierra Leone welcomed the TPNW’s entry into force in 2021 and its ‘steady progress’. The meetings of states parties, it noted, ‘have advanced an ambitious action plan towards the total elimination of nuclear weapons’.2
In the First Committee of the UN General Assembly in October 2024, Sierra Leone said: ‘It is time to take a new and comprehensive approach toward nuclear disarmament. We believe that the TPNW serves as a complementary instrument to the NPT and will end the long impasse in multilateral nuclear disarmament negotiations.’ It added that it would ‘continue to uphold global norms in disarmament strategies and urge regional efforts to ratify the TPNW’.3
At the the Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons (NPT)Preparatory Committee session in July 2024, Sierra Leone delivered a statement on behalf of the African Group welcoming the adoption of the ‘landmark’ TPNW and stressing that it ‘does not undermine the NPT, but rather complements and strengthens the nuclear non-proliferation regime with the NPT as its foundation’. The Group also urged ‘all States to support the TPNW by signing and ratifying the Treaty at an early date’.4
Sierra Leone was one of the co-sponsors for the 2024 UN General Assembly resolution on the TPNW, which welcomed the Treaty’s entry into force and called upon ‘all States that have not yet done so to sign, ratify, accept, approve or accede to the Treaty at the earliest possible date’.5
Recommendations
-
Sierra Leone should continue to encourage other states to adhere to the TPNW.
-
Sierra Leone should ensure that all the TPNW obligations are implemented domestically, through legal, administrative, and other necessary measures.
-
Sierra Leone should bring into force its Additional Protocol (AP) with the IAEA.
-
Sierra Leone should ratify the Pelindaba nuclear-weapon-free zone (NWFZ) Treaty, which it signed in 1996.