CAMPAIGN TO BAN LANDMINES

In 1997, the Norwegian Nobel Committee applauded the Ban Landmine Campaign for changing a ban from "a vision to a feasible reality."

Campaign to Ban Landmines

About the Campaign

Three quarters of the world's nations have joined the 1997 Mine Ban Treaty, including virtually all of NATO, except for the United States.
The US State Department estimates that fewer than one in four landmine amputees is fitted with a proper prosthesis.
The United States has one of the largest mine arsenals in the world.
Though the United States has not produced, sold, or traded antipersonnel landmines in many years, it is one of only about 14 countries that refuses to agree that it will never again produce the weapon.
Landmines have injured and killed thousands of US and allied troops in every US-fought conflict since World War II, including dozens recently in Iraq and Afghanistan.
From 1969 to 1992, the United States exported 4.4 million antipersonnel mines, mostly to Afghanistan, Angola, Cambodia, Iraq, Laos, Lebanon, Mozambique, Nicaragua, Rwanda, Somalia, and Vietnam.
US-made or supplied antipersonnel mines have been found in more than 30 countries.
The International Campaign to Ban Landmines (ICBL) estimates that 15,000-20,000 people are maimed or killed by landmines each year, and that millions more suffer from the agricultural, economic, and psychological impact of the weapon.
The ICBL estimates that there are millions landmines and other unexploded ordnance in the ground in more than 80 countries.
UNICEF estimates that 30-40 percent of mine victims are children under 15 years old.
Landmines can cost as little as $3 to produce and as much as $1,000 per mine to clear.