• Landmines

    Antipersonnel landmines are indiscriminate weapons that have killed and maimed primarily civilians. The weapon cannot distinguish between a soldier during conflict and a civilian stumbling upon one even decades later. The 1997 Mine Ban Treaty comprehensively bans the use, production, stockpiling, and transfer of antipersonnel mines, and requires states to destroy their stockpiles within four years and to clear all mined areas within 10 years. The treaty also contains provisions to assist landmine survivors and to support mine risk education programs. A total of 162 states have joined the Mine Ban Treaty and are making progress in achieving a mine-free world. Through its research and advocacy, Human Rights Watch is working to ensure that all states join the treaty and that its life-saving provisions are fully implemented.

    Take Action: Tell the United States that it's time to ban antipersonnel landmines and join the Mine Ban Treaty.

    Read more about which states have taken action to eliminate landmines in Landmine Monitor.

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Reports

Landmines

  • US: Follow Up Rebuke to Syria on Landmines
    Apr 4, 2012

    The United States should act on its recent condemnation of Syria’s use of antipersonnel landmines by joining the international ban on these weapons.

  • Libya’s Government Destroys Landmines
    Mar 29, 2012

    Last week in Libya, Human Rights Watch witnessed the destruction of nearly 100 Chinese-made antivehicle landmines – weapons that kill or maim civilians, often children, long after the fighting has stopped.

  • Libya: Good Start on Landmine Destruction
    Mar 25, 2012

    Libya’s first steps to destroy its vast stockpile of landmines are a positive development, and the demolitions should continue. 

  • Syria: Army Planting Banned Landmines
    Mar 13, 2012

    Syrian forces have placed landmines near the borders with Lebanon and Turkey in recent weeks and months, based on reports and confirmations from witnesses and Syrian deminers. Civilian casualties have already resulted, the witnesses said.

  • Finland Joins Landmine Ban Treaty
    Jan 11, 2012

    Finland’s action to join the international treaty banning antipersonnel landmines should spur the United States and others to get on board without delay. 

  • Landmine Treaty: Progress in Phnom Penh
    Dec 2, 2011
    The international treaty banning antipersonnel landmines is making strong progress toward its objective of a mine-free world, as a major meeting on landmines wrapped up in Phnom Penh. However, the United States’ review of its policy has regrettably entered its third year without conclusion.
  • Statement on Mine Ban Treaty Compliance Issues
    Dec 2, 2011

    Steve Goose, arms division director at Human Rights Watch and head of the International Campaign to Ban Landmines (ICBL) delegation, delivered a statement at the Mine Ban Treaty Eleventh Meeting of States Parties in Phnom Penh.   

  • Statement on Mine Ban Treaty Stockpile Destruction
    Dec 1, 2011
    Mark Hiznay, senior researcher in the arms division of Human Rights Watch, delivered a statement on stockpile destruction obligations under the Mine Ban Treaty at the Eleventh Meeting of States Parties in Phnom Penh.
  • Statement on the Mine Ban Treaty during the Eleventh Meeting of States Parties
    Nov 30, 2011

    Steve Goose, arms division director at Human Rights Watch and head of the International Campaign to Ban Landmines (ICBL) delegation, delivered a statement at the Mine Ban Treaty Eleventh Meeting of States Parties in Phnom Penh.  

  • Landmine Treaty: More Members, but Use Persists
    Nov 22, 2011

    The new use of landmines in a handful of countries threatens to undermine progress toward banning the weapons. The membership in the international treaty banning antipersonnel landmines has expanded, however, to 158 countries.

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