Land mine is made of plastic, metal, or other materials. They contain explosives and sometimes pieces of metal or other objects meant to cause additional injury. They can be activated by direct pressure from above, by pressure put on a wire or filament attached to a pull switch, or even simply by the proximity of a person within a predetermined distance.

Triggered landmine unleashes unspeakable destruction, often destroying one or more limbs and projecting metal and debris into the wound, as well as causing burns, blindness, or other life-long injuries. Sometimes the victim dies from the blast, due to loss of blood or because they don’t get to medical care in time. Those who survive and receive medical treatment often require amputations, long hospital stays, multiple operations, and extensive rehabilitation.

Stepping on a blast antipersonnel mine will invariably cause severe foot and leg injuries, as well as secondary infections usually resulting in amputation. Fragmentation mines project hundreds of metal fragments, showering the victim with deep wounds. Bounding fragmentation mines are more powerful versions: they spring up about 1 meter and then explode, firing metal fragments to a large radius at waist height.

In 2016, an average of 23 people around the world lost their life or limb to a landmine or another explosive remnant of war, every day. That means over 8,605 people were hurt or killed in 2016. 

Still some 61 countries and areas around the world are contaminated by landmines and thousands of people continue living with a this daily threat of losing their life or limb.

The majority of the countries remaining outside the treaty keep stockpiles that collectively total around 50 million landmines. If not destroyed, those landmines remain ready to be used any time. The biggest stockpiles of antipersonnel landmines are held by: Russia, Pakistan, India, China, and the United States.

There is also a small group of countries that still continues producing antipersonnel landmines, likely including India, Myanmar, Pakistan, and South Korea, with a few others reserving the right to produce the weapon.

Though new use of antipersonnel landmines is rare and limited, it still happens. Myanmar/Burma is the only government that has persistently continued laying antipersonnel mines over the years. In addition Libya (under Gaddafi) and Syria used antipersonnel mines during recent conflicts. There is also a number of non-state armed groups in a handful of countries that have continued using antipersonnel mines.