Africa
Source tier B. Conventions checked 2026-07-29.
Drug and firearms law in South Sudan: statutes on record and in force
South Sudan, in Africa, is party to all four of the instruments tracked here, the last of them since 2025. It is currently under increased monitoring by the FATF. The dates below are the depositary's; the instruments, where any are named, are the register's.
International framework
South Sudan is bound by all four instruments this dataset tracks, the earliest from 2015 and the most recent from 2025.
| Instrument | Adopted | Ratified or acceded | Depositary reference |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1988 Convention | 1988 | 20 Oct 2023 | Chapter VI-19 |
| UNTOC | 2000 | 20 Oct 2023 | Chapter XVIII-12 |
| UNCAC | 2003 | 23 Jan 2015 | Chapter XVIII-14 |
| Firearms Protocol | 2001 | 9 Apr 2025 | 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 South Sudan: they are the points from which each obligation began to bind, taken from the depositary's own status tables.
National legislation
South Sudan's national implementing legislation is not yet confirmed against a citable national register. The convention and monitoring records above carry named sources and check dates; this field does not, so it states nothing rather than something unsourced.
South Sudan holds the most recent deposit in this dataset: the Firearms Protocol on 9 April 2025, with the 1988 Convention and the UNTOC both on 20 October 2023. No implementing statute is confirmed, which is what a framework this new would predict — implementing legislation follows accession rather than arriving with it. It is also one of two records here, with Bolivia, that combine a post-2020 accession with FATF increased monitoring, so the obligations and the scrutiny arrived within a few years of each other.
Enforcement authorities
One body is named in the record for South Sudan, each confirmed on South Sudan'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 |
|---|---|---|
| the Customs division of the SSRA | customs and border control | customs.eservices.gov.ss |
Ratification sequence
The order matters as much as the count. South Sudan came to these instruments over 10 years, beginning with the UNCAC in 2015 and ending with the Firearms Protocol in 2025. Measured against each instrument's own adoption, the shortest gap was the UNCAC at 12 years, the longest the 1988 Convention at 35.
South Sudan became a party to the 1988 Convention in 2023, 35 years after it was adopted — slower than the median lag of 5 years across this dataset.
What sat in the gaps between them is the less obvious half of the record. For the 8 years between 2015 and 2023, South Sudan was bound by the UNCAC but not yet by the 1988 Convention, the UNTOC or the Firearms Protocol. Treaty obligations do not apply backwards, so the interval is a real limit on what the framework could reach at the time rather than an administrative detail.
On coverage, South Sudan is one of 81 jurisdiction s here party to 4 of the four, against 81 party to all four. Within Africa the dataset holds 53 jurisdictions, of which 6 are currently under FATF increased monitoring.
Financial-crime monitoring
As of the FATF plenary statements of 2026-06-19, South Sudan is recorded as Increased monitoring . What that status means, and how it differs from the call-for-action list, is set out on the FATF grey list tracker.
Questions about drug and firearms law in South Sudan
Which drug-control conventions has South Sudan ratified?
All four: the 1988 Convention on 20 Oct 2023, the UNTOC on 20 Oct 2023, the UNCAC on 23 Jan 2015, the Firearms Protocol on 9 Apr 2025.
Is South Sudan on the FATF grey list?
Yes. South Sudan is under increased monitoring as of the FATF plenary statement of 19 June 2026. That means the FATF has identified strategic deficiencies in its anti-money-laundering and counter-terrorist-financing regime and the jurisdiction has committed to an action plan with review deadlines.
What national drug legislation is on record for South Sudan?
None confirmed against a citable national register yet. The dates and listing status on this page are sourced; this field is not, so it stays empty.
Which register confirms the legislation on this page?
None yet, which is why no instrument is named. The registers searched for South Sudan were the UNODC legal library, which files legislation by jurisdiction, and the national government and parliamentary hosts reachable under its own country-code domain. Neither produced a document that identifies an instrument, so this record cites none.
What is source tier B, and why is this record in it?
Tier B means the treaty record is confirmed at the depositary but no national instrument has been confirmed against a citable register. It is a statement about this dataset's sourcing, not about South Sudan's statute book, which may well contain instruments that are simply not published where they can be cited from.
Why does the ratification date matter?
The date is the point from which the obligations bind. South Sudan's earliest of these commitments dates from 2015, its most recent from 2025; 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.