Countries / Sao Tome and Principe / Dossier
Sao Tome and Principe
A combined view of Sao Tome and Principe's UN General Assembly speeches, treaty commitments, and voting record.
The narrative paragraphs below are AI-generated syntheses of the data shown — the tables and figures themselves come directly from the underlying records, not from the AI.
Compare with another country →Speech history
Sao Tome and Principe's UN General Assembly rhetoric has remained consistently multilateralist over 15 years, with multilateralism scores consistently between 58 and 88, reflecting a steadfast commitment to UN-led international cooperation. The country's speeches have evolved toward greater emphasis on climate justice and small island state vulnerabilities, particularly pronounced in recent years, while emotional intensity has fluctuated between highly impassioned early addresses (2006, 2008) and more measured diplomatic tones (2010-2014, 2018-2020). A notable pattern is the persistent gap between rhetorical appeals for global action and concrete self-directed commitments: concreteness and self-accountability scores have remained low throughout, generally in the 20-60 range, suggesting the country frames itself as an advocate for systemic multilateral reform rather than as an implementer of specific national initiatives.
| Session | Multilateralism | Emotional intensity | Concreteness | Self-accountability |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2006 | Medium | High | High | Medium |
| 2008 | High | High | Medium | Medium |
| 2009 | Very High | Medium | Medium | Low |
| 2010 | High | Low | Medium | Low |
| 2011 | High | Low | Medium | Low |
| 2012 | High | High | Medium | Low |
| 2013 | High | Medium | Low | Low |
| 2014 | Very High | Low | Medium | Medium |
| 2015 | High | Medium | Medium | Low |
| 2016 | High | Medium | Medium | Low |
| 2018 | High | Low | Low | Low |
| 2019 | Very High | Low | Low | Low |
| 2020 | Very High | Low | Low | Low |
| 2023 | High | High | Low | Low |
| 2024 | Very High | Medium | Low | Low |
Treaty status
Full treaty record →Sao Tome and Principe demonstrates exceptional commitment to international legal frameworks, having ratified 23 of 24 tracked treaties. The country shows particularly strong engagement with environmental and arms control treaties, ratifying all major climate and ozone-protection instruments including the Paris Agreement and Montreal Protocol, as well as all four tracked arms control treaties. Human rights and trade governance instruments are similarly well-represented in its ratification portfolio. The one unsigned-but-not-ratified treaty is the Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court, suggesting either procedural hesitation or lower priority on universal criminal justice mechanisms relative to other commitments.
Arms control & security
- Arms Trade TreatyRatified
- Comprehensive Nuclear-Test-Ban TreatyRatified
- Convention on the Prohibition of the Use, Stockpiling, Production and Transfer of Anti-Personnel Mines and on their DestructionRatified
- Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear WeaponsRatified
Environment & climate
- Basel Convention on the Control of Transboundary Movements of Hazardous Wastes and their DisposalRatified
- Convention on Biological DiversityRatified
- Kigali Amendment to the Montreal Protocol on Substances that Deplete the Ozone LayerRatified
- Kyoto Protocol to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate ChangeRatified
- Minamata Convention on MercuryRatified
- Montreal Protocol on Substances that Deplete the Ozone LayerRatified
- Paris AgreementRatified
- Rotterdam Convention on the Prior Informed Consent Procedure for Certain Hazardous Chemicals and Pesticides in International TradeRatified
- Stockholm Convention on Persistent Organic PollutantsRatified
- United Nations Convention to Combat Desertification in those Countries Experiencing Serious Drought and/or Desertification, Particularly in AfricaRatified
- United Nations Framework Convention on Climate ChangeRatified
Human rights
- Convention against Torture and Other Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or PunishmentRatified
- Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against WomenRatified
- Convention on the Rights of Persons with DisabilitiesRatified
- Convention on the Rights of the ChildRatified
- International Covenant on Civil and Political RightsRatified
International justice
- Rome Statute of the International Criminal CourtSigned, not ratified
Trade & governance
- United Nations Convention against CorruptionRatified
- United Nations Convention against Transnational Organized CrimeRatified
- United Nations Convention on the Law of the SeaRatified
Voting record
Full voting record →Sao Tome and Principe has participated in 4,892 General Assembly votes over the tracked period, voting affirmatively on 2,647 occasions and recording only 10 dissenting votes and 94 abstentions, while not voting in 2,141 cases. This pattern—a strong yes majority, minimal noes, and selective abstention—indicates broad alignment with consensus positions without notable ideological dissent, consistent with the country's rhetorical emphasis on multilateral cooperation and solidarity with Global South and small island state coalitions.
Human development
Full HDI record →Human Development Index: 0.637 (Medium), ranked #141 globally in 2023.
Combines life expectancy, education, and income into one comparable score, 0 to 1. Source: UNDP Human Development Report 2025 — deterministic figures, not AI-generated.
2005–2023