In the present report, the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights details the impact of anti-personnel mines on the enjoyment of all human rights, with particular emphasis on economic, social and cultural rights. In the report, the High Commissioner highlights the different types of negative human rights impacts resulting from anti-personnel mines, and considers measures to address those impacts, including refraining from the use, development, production, acquisition, stockpiling, retention and transfer of anti-personnel mines; providing protection against the adverse impacts of anti-personnel mines; and ensuring the rights of survivors and other affected individuals and communities.
As noted by the Secretary-General in 2025, at least 58 States and territories are contaminated by anti-personnel mines. In several States, contamination by anti-personnel mines remains heavy, with some also contaminated by other unexploded ordnance. Despite the determination expressed by the international community to put an end to the suffering and casualties caused by anti-personnel mines, such mines continue to be used including by non-State actors.
The effects of anti-personnel mine contamination on the enjoyment on human rights are profound and complex, affecting the enjoyment of the full spectrum of civil, political, economic, social and cultural rights. These effects are continuous and long-lasting: explosive ordnance contamination, including anti-personnel mines, still persist from the two world wars and armed conflicts that have occurred since, and result in uninterrupted adverse impacts at least until their clearance. For survivors of explosions, the effects can result in life-long adversity. In many affected contexts, areas are contaminated by a mix of anti-personnel mines, improvised explosive devices and other explosive remnants of war. While the technical characteristics differ, the effects of those devices can be similar, compounding the adverse human rights impacts.
Anti-personnel mines adversely affect the right to life and the integrity of persons due to their lethal consequences. The tragic facts in one well-known case are illustrative: an individual who had gone to a meadow to bring in his family’s cattle was killed by a mine. When he did not return, a village search party went looking for him, and two additional individuals were injured by mines. One of the two men returned to the village; when a rescue party went to bring back the second man, who in the meantime had succumbed to his injuries, two of that man’s cousins were both injured by mines.
Studies on patterns of injuries from anti-personnel mines have highlighted three broad types of patterns: traumatic amputation of lower limbs resulting from standing on a buried mine; penetration injuries caused by fragments of a mine; and injuries to upper limbs resulting from the handling of anti-personnel mines. Eye injuries, including blindness, are common among all injury profiles, as is hearing loss. Studies suggest that victims of anti-personnel improvised explosive devices are more likely to have multiple amputations and genital injuries than are victims of factory-produced anti-personnel mines.
Writing in 2004, the World Bank estimated that there had been over 1 million victims of anti-personnel mines since 1975.15 Landmine and Cluster Munition Monitor records for 1999–2024 included 165,724 casualties – 47,904 persons killed, 113,595 persons injured and 4,225 unknown survival outcomes – in incidents involving explosive devices and items detonated by the presence, proximity or contact of a person or vehicle. The Monitor records indicated that there had been at least 6,279 casualties from landmines and explosive remnants of war in 2024 alone, with at least 1,945 persons killed and 4,325 injured. The number of casualties from manufactured anti-personnel mines recorded annually effectively tripled between 2020 and 2024, from less than 500 casualties to more than 1,500. In 2024, improvised mines continued to account for the highest number of annual casualties, as they had for nearly a decade. Most improvised mines were believed to serve as anti-personnel mines, due to the nature of their designs, which made it possible for them to be triggered by a person. Among victims where the status as military or civilian was known, civilians made up approximately 90 per cent of all recorded casualties in 2024. By number of casualties, the States with the highest casualty rates in 2024 were Myanmar (2,029), the Syrian Arab Republic (1,015) and Afghanistan (624), with, in descending order of number of casualties, Ukraine, Nigeria, Mali, Yemen and Burkina Faso each recording more than 200 casualties.
Children constitute a significant proportion of casualties of anti-personnel mines, and have represented over 40 per cent of all civilian casualties recorded by the Landmine and Cluster Munition Monitor between 1999 and 2024.As noted in the contribution from the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF), being smaller than adults, children suffer more severe physical trauma and higher fatality rates from anti-personnel mine injuries, with the probability of survival decreasing the younger the victim is. The Committee on the Rights of the Child has highlighted that children are at particular risk because their natural curiosity and exploratory play increases the likelihood of exposure and has expressed concern about anti-personnel mines and unexploded ordnance. In 2024, children constituted the majority of casualties from explosive remnants of war where the age group of the victim was known.
Survivors require healthcare, including emergency medical care and often multiple surgeries and hospitalizations as well as rehabilitation. They often require longer-term, sometimes lifelong, care and rehabilitation, and suffer chronic pain. As noted in the contribution from UNICEF, child survivors and those affected by improvised explosive devices can be at greater risk, as they suffer more complex injuries requiring specialized care. Furthermore, a 10-year-old child with a lower limb amputation is likely to need 25 prostheses in the course of his or her life due to growth. Survivors of anti-personnel mine explosions also suffer psychological trauma with child and adolescent survivors showing elevated rates of post-traumatic stress, anxiety disorders and depression as compared to the general population.
Contamination can also prevent land utilization, even where subsistence needs are going unmet. As noted in the contribution from the Mine Action Service, in Midigo village, in the eastern part of the Democratic Republic of the Congo, fear of explosive ordnance kept agricultural fields abandoned for nearly three decades. In Ukraine, destruction in the course of hostilities and explosive ordnance contamination has affected large areas of agricultural land, particularly near the front lines of fighting. As noted by the Secretary-General, contamination in Ukraine renders approximately 10 per cent of the world’s most fertile agricultural land unusable, threatening both civilian lives and global food security. Anti-personnel mines have distinct impacts on the rights of children, including on their enjoyment of the right to rest, leisure, play and recreational activities and to participate freely in cultural life and the arts and limit their access to education. Adverse impacts on education can result from actions such as cutting off the paths to educational facilities or, as is the case in some areas in Colombia and Yemen, from the presence of anti-personnel mines in or near school buildings. This is borne out by findings suggesting that the demining of some areas of Colombia has resulted in increased academic achievement among children in those areas.
The Ottawa Convention is reflective of the will of the international community as a whole to put an end to the suffering and casualties caused by anti-personnel mines. There has been notable progress towards its universalization, and reaffirmed political commitment was expressed in the Siem Reap-Angkor Declaration. However, there have been notable and concerning developments related to both the deployment of anti-personnel mines and adherence to the Convention.
PLEASE READ THE ENTIRE REPORT:
UN High Commissioner for Human Rights report on the Impact of anti-personnel mines on human rights.
Here’s the link: https://www.ohchr.org/en/documents/thematic-reports/ahrc6234-impact-anti-personnel-mines-human-rights-report-united-nations.