An anti-personnel mine (APM) is an explosive device emplaced on or under the ground or another surface and triggered automatically by the presence, proximity, or contact of a person. APMs are distinguished from anti-vehicle or anti-tank mines, which require greater pressure or specific signatures to detonate. Because APMs cannot distinguish between combatants and civilians, and because they remain active long after hostilities end, they have been a central concern of international humanitarian law (IHL).
The principal instrument regulating APMs is the Convention on the Prohibition of the Use, Stockpiling, Production and Transfer of Anti-Personnel Mines and on their Destruction, commonly called the Ottawa Convention or Mine Ban Treaty. It was opened for signature in Ottawa in December 1997 and entered into force on 1 March 1999. States parties undertake never to use, develop, produce, stockpile, or transfer APMs, to destroy stockpiles (generally within four years), and to clear mined areas under their jurisdiction (generally within ten years, with possible extensions). The treaty also obliges parties to assist victims and cooperate on mine action.
APMs are additionally addressed in Amended Protocol II (1996) to the Convention on Certain Conventional Weapons (CCW), which regulates rather than prohibits their use and binds several states that are not parties to the Ottawa Convention.
Major non-parties to the Ottawa Convention include the United States, Russia, China, India, Pakistan, Iran, Israel, and the Koreas. Implementation is monitored by annual Meetings of States Parties and Review Conferences, supported by civil-society coalitions such as the International Campaign to Ban Landmines (ICBL), which shared the 1997 Nobel Peace Prize with its coordinator Jody Williams. Operational mine clearance and victim assistance are coordinated through the UN Mine Action Service (UNMAS) and NGOs including the HALO Trust and Mines Advisory Group.
In MUN and policy debate, APMs are frequently discussed alongside cluster munitions, explosive remnants of war (ERW), and improvised explosive devices (IEDs).
Example
In June 2025, Finland announced its intention to withdraw from the Ottawa Convention, citing the security threat from Russia, joining similar moves signaled by the Baltic states and Poland regarding APMs along NATO's eastern flank.
Frequently asked questions
They are prohibited for states parties to the 1997 Ottawa Convention, but several major military powers — including the US, Russia, China, and India — are not parties and are bound only by the more limited rules of CCW Amended Protocol II.
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