Latin America and the Caribbean
Source tier A. Conventions checked 2026-07-29.
Drug and firearms law in Uruguay: statutes on record and in force
Uruguay, in Latin America and the Caribbean, is party to all four of the instruments tracked here, the last of them since 2008. It appears on neither FATF list. Its legislation on record runs to 2 confirmed instruments. Where a field could not be sourced it is reported as unsourced rather than left to be inferred.
International framework
Uruguay is bound by all four instruments this dataset tracks, the earliest from 1995 and the most recent from 2008.
| Instrument | Adopted | Ratified or acceded | Depositary reference |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1988 Convention | 1988 | 10 Mar 1995 | Chapter VI-19 |
| UNTOC | 2000 | 4 Mar 2005 | Chapter XVIII-12 |
| UNCAC | 2003 | 10 Jan 2007 | Chapter XVIII-14 |
| Firearms Protocol | 2001 | 3 Apr 2008 | 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 Uruguay: they are the points from which each obligation began to bind, taken from the depositary's own status tables.
National legislation
The following instruments have been confirmed against a citable national source. Titles are given as enacted and are not translated.
Decree-Law No. 14.294 DECREE THE FOLLOWING (No. 14.294) — A subordinate instrument, made under the authority of a parent act rather than standing alone — typically the schedules, thresholds and licensing detail. Confirmed against the UNODC legal library, checked 2026-07-30.
Ley Nº 17.016 Estupefacientes (No. 17.016) — A principal drug control instrument, carrying the 1988 Convention's trafficking and confiscation obligations into domestic law. Confirmed against the Organization of American States, checked 2026-07-30.
Enforcement authorities
No enforcement body is named in this record for Uruguay. The bodies that would appear
here are those identified on the jurisdiction's own government hosts — the police service,
customs administration, prosecuting authority or dedicated drug agency, reachable under the .uy country-code domain. The search returned no citable naming of a body, and a plausible name without one would put the reader in a worse position than a blank.
Ratification sequence
The order matters as much as the count. Uruguay came to these instruments over 13 years, beginning with the 1988 Convention in 1995 and ending with the Firearms Protocol in 2008. Measured against each instrument's own adoption, the shortest gap was the UNCAC at 4 years, the longest the 1988 Convention at 7.
Uruguay became a party to the 1988 Convention in 1995, 7 years after it was adopted — slower than the median lag of 5 years across this dataset.
The gaps between those dates are the part worth reading. For the 10 years between 1995 and 2005, Uruguay was bound by the 1988 Convention but not yet by the UNTOC, the UNCAC 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, Uruguay is one of 81 jurisdiction s here party to 4 of the four, against 81 party to all four. The Latin America and the Caribbean cohort runs to 33 records, 3 of them currently listed for increased monitoring.
Financial-crime monitoring
As of the FATF plenary statements of 2026-06-19, Uruguay is recorded as Not listed . A jurisdiction can enter or leave either list at any plenary, so this line is dated rather than settled. The current statement and what it changed are tracked on the FATF grey list tracker.
Questions about drug and firearms law in Uruguay
Which drug-control conventions has Uruguay ratified?
All four: the 1988 Convention on 10 Mar 1995, the UNTOC on 4 Mar 2005, the UNCAC on 10 Jan 2007, the Firearms Protocol on 3 Apr 2008.
Is Uruguay on the FATF grey list?
No. Uruguay 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 Uruguay?
Decree-Law No. 14.294 DECREE THE FOLLOWING (No. 14.294), confirmed against the UNODC legal library; Ley Nº 17.016 Estupefacientes (No. 17.016), confirmed against the Organization of American States.
Which register confirms the legislation on this page?
Each instrument names its own. For Uruguay that is the UNODC legal library, the Organization of American States. 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 Uruguay, 2 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. Uruguay's earliest of these commitments dates from 1995, its most recent from 2008; 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.
- Decree-Law No. 14.294 DECREE THE FOLLOWING: the UNODC legal library, checked 2026-07-30.
- Ley Nº 17.016 Estupefacientes: the Organization of American States, checked 2026-07-30.