A land mine, or landmine, is an explosive weapon concealed under or camouflaged on the ground, and designed to destroy or disable enemy targets, ranging from combatants to vehicles and tanks, as they pass over or near it.
The International Campaign to Ban Landmines (ICBL) is a coalition of non-governmental organizations whose stated objective is a world free of anti-personnel mines and cluster munitions, where mine and cluster munitions survivors see their rights respected and can lead fulfilling lives.
The HALO Trust is a humanitarian non-government organisation which primarily works to clear landmines and other explosive devices left behind by conflicts. With over 10,000 staff worldwide, HALO has operations in 28 countries. Its largest operation is in Afghanistan, where the organization continues to operate under the Taliban regime that took power in August 2021.
Unexploded ordnance, unexploded bombs (UXBs), and explosive remnants of war are explosive weapons that did not explode when they were employed and still pose a risk of detonation, sometimes many decades after they were used or discarded. When unwanted munitions are found, they are sometimes destroyed in controlled explosions, but accidental detonation of even very old explosives also occurs, sometimes with fatal results. A dud is an unexploded projectile fired in anger against an enemy, but which has failed to explode. A projectile not fired in anger but which has failed to explode is called a 'blind'.
The Convention on the Prohibition of the Use, Stockpiling, Production and Transfer of Anti-Personnel Mines and on their Destruction of 1997, known informally as the Ottawa Treaty, the Anti-Personnel Mine Ban Convention, or often simply the Mine Ban Treaty, aims at eliminating anti-personnel landmines (APLs) around the world.
Demining or mine clearance is the process of removing land mines from an area. In military operations, the object is to rapidly clear a path through a minefield, and this is often done with devices such as mine plows and blast waves. By contrast, the goal of humanitarian demining is to remove all of the landmines to a given depth and make the land safe for human use. Specially trained dogs are also used to narrow down the search and verify that an area is cleared. Mechanical devices such as flails and excavators are sometimes used to clear mines.
PFM-1 is a scatterable high explosive anti-personnel land mine of Soviet and Russian production. It is also known as a Green Parrot or Butterfly Mine. The mines can be deployed from mortars, helicopters and aeroplanes in large numbers; they glide to the ground without exploding and will explode later upon contact.
FSD is a Swiss non-governmental organisation specialising in mine action. Since its creation in 1997, FSD has carried out operations in some 30 countries on four continents. Its programmes include the following four components: humanitarian demining, explosive ordnance risk education, victim assistance, and stockpile destruction and management. In 26 years, more than 1.4 million items of explosive ordnance have been neutralised by FSD.
A mine clearance organization, or demining organization, is an organization involved in the removal of landmines and unexploded ordnance (UXO) for military, humanitarian, or commercial reasons. Demining includes mine clearance, as well as surveying, mapping and marking of hazardous areas.
The Geneva International Centre for Humanitarian Demining is an international organisation working in mine action and explosive ordnance risk reduction, with a focus on landmines, cluster munitions and ammunition stockpiles. Based in the Maison de la paix in Geneva, it is legally a non-profit foundation in Switzerland.
The region of Nagorno-Karabakh and areas around it are considered to be some of the most heavily mined regions of the former Soviet Union. Mines were laid from early 1990s by both Azerbaijani and Armenian forces during and after the First Nagorno-Karabakh War. The worst-affected areas are along the fortified former contact line between Azerbaijani and Armenian forces, in particular in the districts of Aghdam, Fuzuli and Jabrayil. According to military experts from both Azerbaijan and Armenia, the ground in those areas is covered with "carpets of land mines." The region has the highest per capita rate in the world of accidents due to unexploded ordnance.
Mine action is a combination of humanitarian aid and development studies that aims to remove landmines and reduce the social, economic and environmental impact of them and the explosive remnants of war (ERW).
The Mines Advisory Group (MAG) is a non-governmental organization that assists people affected by landmines, unexploded ordnance, and small arms and light weapons.
The United Nations Mine Action Service (UNMAS) is a service located within the United Nations Department of Peacekeeping Operations that specializes in coordinating and implementing activities to limit the threat posed by mines, explosive remnants of war and improvised explosive devices.
Golden West Humanitarian Foundation is an American Non-profit (501C3) organisation that develops technology to address the technical limitations of humanitarian mine clearance. The Golden West Humanitarian Foundation is based in Woodland Hills, Los Angeles, California.
Danish Demining Group (DDG) is the Human Security Unit under the Danish Refugee Council (DRC), specialised in clearing landmines and unexploded ordnance and reducing armed violence.
Superman and Wonder Woman – the Hidden Killer is a special-edition "humanitarian comic book" featuring Superman and Wonder Woman that promotes "landmine awareness" among children, particularly from countries where there are active landmines after war. The free comic book was published from 1993 through 1999 by DC Comics, the United States Department of Defense, the Mine Action Center (MAC), the United Nations International Children's Emergency Fund (UNICEF), and participating non-governmental organizations (NGOs). In the comic book, Superman and Wonder Woman are featured as educators who are teaching children about the dangers of landmines.
There were approximately 30,000 land mines laid in British overseas territory of the Falkland Islands by Argentinian forces following their 1982 invasion. Some of the mines were cleared immediately following the successful British operation to retake the islands, but following a series of accidents, demining operations ceased. In the following years the mine fields were fenced off and, with human access limited, became havens for Falklands flora and the native penguin population. The British government ratified the Ottawa Treaty in 1998 that required the removal of all mines within its territory. Demining operations, which had to be carried out by hand due to the climate and local condition, restarted in 2009. The last mines were cleared in November 2020.
Ukraine globally ranks as one of the states with the highest civilian casualties from landmines and unexploded ordnances, and the highest for anti-vehicle mine incidents. As of April 2023, it is estimated that approximately 174,000 square kilometers of Ukrainian territory are contaminated by landmines. Many types of landmines have been found in use in Ukraine, including novel variants. Though landmines have been in use since 2014 in Ukraine during the War in Donbas (2014–2022), their use was relatively sporadic until the Russian invasion of Ukraine. According to Human Rights Watch, both Russian and Ukrainian government forces have utilized antipersonnel and anti-vehicle mines.
Project Masam is a multilateral humanitarian land mine clearance project in Yemen launched by the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia in June 2018.
