Africa
Source tier A. Conventions checked 2026-07-29.
Drug and firearms law in Sierra Leone: statutes on record and in force
Sierra Leone, in Africa, is party to all four of the instruments tracked here, the last of them since 2014. It appears on neither FATF list. Its confirmed instrument on record is the The Pharmacy and Drugs Act, 2001 of 2001. The dates below are the depositary's; the instruments, where any are named, are the register's.
International framework
Sierra Leone is bound by all four instruments this dataset tracks, the earliest from 1994 and the most recent from 2014.
| Instrument | Adopted | Ratified or acceded | Depositary reference |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1988 Convention | 1988 | 6 Jun 1994 | Chapter VI-19 |
| UNTOC | 2000 | 12 Aug 2014 | Chapter XVIII-12 |
| UNCAC | 2003 | 30 Sep 2004 | Chapter XVIII-14 |
| Firearms Protocol | 2001 | 12 Aug 2014 | Chapter XVIII-12-c |
What each instrument obliges a party to do is set out once, per instrument, in the conventions reference. The dates above are what is specific to Sierra Leone: they are the points from which each obligation began to bind, taken from the depositary's own status tables.
National legislation
Below are the confirmed instruments, given in their enacted titles. Where a register supplies a citation number it is carried through unchanged.
The Pharmacy and Drugs Act, 2001 — A principal drug control instrument, carrying the 1988 Convention's trafficking and confiscation obligations into domestic law. Confirmed against the UNODC legal library, checked 2026-07-30.
Enforcement authorities
3 bodies are named in the record for Sierra Leone, each confirmed on Sierra Leone's own government domain. Naming the body matters because the treaty obligations above bind the state, while the powers to act on them sit with particular institutions under national law.
| Body | Function | Confirmed on |
|---|---|---|
| National Revenue Authority | customs and border control | nra.gov.sl |
| Transnational Organised Crime Unit | named in the legislation | ons.gov.sl |
| Office of National Security | named in the legislation | ons.gov.sl |
Ratification sequence
Which instrument came first says something the total does not. Sierra Leone came to these instruments over 20 years, beginning with the 1988 Convention in 1994 and ending with the Firearms Protocol in 2014. Measured against each instrument's own adoption, the shortest gap was the UNCAC at 1 year, the longest the UNTOC at 14.
Sierra Leone became a party to the 1988 Convention in 1994, 6 years after it was adopted — slower than the median lag of 5 years across this dataset.
A complete treaty position assembled over decades is not the same as one assembled at once. For the 10 years between 1994 and 2004, Sierra Leone was bound by the 1988 Convention but not yet by the UNCAC, the UNTOC or the Firearms Protocol. For the 10 years between 2004 and 2014, Sierra Leone was bound by the 1988 Convention and the UNCAC but not yet by the UNTOC or the Firearms Protocol. An obligation that arrives late does not reach conduct that took place before it, which is why the sequence matters to a prosecutor and not only to a chronology.
On coverage, Sierra Leone is one of 81 jurisdiction s here party to 4 of the four, against 81 party to all four. Africa accounts for 53 of the records here; 6 of them carry a current monitoring listing.
Position on the trafficking corridors
Sierra Leone sits on the west african corridor, one of the six corridors profiled here. How this leg compares with the others is the question the figures below answer.
The West African corridor — 12 jurisdictions, carrying cocaine. The legs either side of Sierra Leone in the reporting are Cabo Verde and Liberia. Across the corridor as a whole, 9 of the 12 legs are party to all four instruments, 3 sit outside the Firearms Protocol, 1 carry no confirmed national instrument , and 1 is under increased monitoring. Sierra Leone clears all three of those checks. The corridor profile carries the leg-by-leg comparison.
Financial-crime monitoring
As of the FATF plenary statements of 2026-06-19, Sierra Leone is recorded as Not listed . Nothing here is a finding about Sierra Leone's financial controls; it records only that neither statement names it. What each status entails is set out on the FATF grey list tracker.
Questions about drug and firearms law in Sierra Leone
Which drug-control conventions has Sierra Leone ratified?
All four: the 1988 Convention on 6 Jun 1994, the UNTOC on 12 Aug 2014, the UNCAC on 30 Sep 2004, the Firearms Protocol on 12 Aug 2014.
Is Sierra Leone on the FATF grey list?
No. Sierra Leone appears on neither the increased-monitoring list nor the call-for-action list in the FATF statements of 19 June 2026.
What national drug legislation is on record for Sierra Leone?
The Pharmacy and Drugs Act, 2001, confirmed against the UNODC legal library.
Which register confirms the legislation on this page?
Each instrument names its own. For Sierra Leone that is the UNODC legal library. The citation is to the issuing register rather than to any account of it, so the text can be read as enacted.
What is source tier A, and why is this record in it?
Tier A means a national instrument has been confirmed against an official register — for Sierra Leone, 1 of them. The treaty dates and the listing status are separately sourced, so all three layers of this record carry a citation.
Why does the ratification date matter?
The date is the point from which the obligations bind. Sierra Leone's earliest of these commitments dates from 1994, its most recent from 2014; the gap between them is a rough measure of how long the framework took to assemble.
Sources
- Ratification dates: United Nations Treaty Collection, depositary status tables (chapters VI-19, XVIII-12, XVIII-14, XVIII-12-c). Checked 2026-07-29.
- Listing status: FATF, Jurisdictions under Increased Monitoring and High-Risk Jurisdictions subject to a Call for Action, 2026-06-19.
- The Pharmacy and Drugs Act, 2001: the UNODC legal library, checked 2026-07-30.