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Over the years, Handicap International has become one of the reference organisations on landmine issues. Handicap International is a co-founder of the International Campaign to Ban Landmines which was awarded with the 1997 Nobel Peace Prize.

The problems

• Indiscriminate: landmines kill and maim civilians, soldiers, peacekeepers and aid workers alike. Landmines lie dormant in the ground and become a permanent threat to civilians in peacetime.
• Inhumane: It is estimated that there are between 15,000 and 20,000 new casualties caused by landmines and unexploded ordnance every year. Many people die in the fields from lack of emergency care. Those who survive will most likely suffer from amputations, will face long hospital stays and require extensive rehabilitation. Hundreds of thousands of people have been killed or injured in the last decades.
• Development disaster: landmines deprive people in some of the poorest countries of land and infrastructure. Landmines also hold up the return of refugees and displaced people. They hamper reconstruction and the delivery of aid, whilst killing livestock and wrecking the environment.
• Landmines are everywhere: 84 countries and 8 territories are affected in the world. Afghanistan, Angola, Bosnia, Cambodia, Chechnya and Iraq are some of the worst affected countries.
• Still work to be done: Landmines are still being planted today and minefields dating back decades continue to lie in wait of innocent victims. Over 10 countries are still producing landmines.

Our activities against landmines and cluster munitions

Handicap International intervenes at different levels to tackle landmine and cluster bomber issues.

In developing countries, Handicap International provides support to landmine survivors through orthopaedic and rehabilitation projects. We also implement mine risk education and humanitarian demining programs and participate in landmine impact surveys.

At an international level, Handicap International takes part in national campaigns in Europe and Canada and is an active member of the International Campaign to Ban Landmines, which successfully campaigned for the implementation of the Treaty to Ban Landmines.
In the UK, Handicap International runs the Ban Cluster Bombs campaign (sign the online petition).

List of the countries and territories affected by landmines

- Abkhazia	- Greece	- Peru
- Afghanistan	- Guinea Bissau	- Poland
- Albania	- India	- Russia
- Algeria	- Iran	- Rwanda
- Angola	- Iraq	- Senegal
- Armenia	- Israel	- Serbia
- Azerbaijan	- Jordan	- Somalia
- Belarus	- Korea, North	- Somaliland
- Bosnia & Herzegovina	- Korea, South	- Sri Lanka
- Burma	- Kosovo	- Sudan
- Burundi	- Kuwait	- Syria
- Cambodia	- Kyrgyzstan	- Taiwan
- Chad	- Laos	- Tajikistan
- Chechnya	- Lebanon	- Thailand
- Chile	- Libya	- Tunisia
- China	- Macedonia	- Turkey
- Colombia	- Malawi	- Uganda
- Congo (Rep of)	- Mali	- Ukraine
- Congo (Dem Rep of)	- Mauritania	- Uzbekistan
- Croatia	- Moldova	- Venezuela
- Cuba	- Montenegro	- Vietnam
- Cyprus	- Morocco	- Western Sahara
- Denmark	- Mozambique	- Yemen
- Djibouti	- Nagorno-Karabakh	- Zambia
- Ecuador	- Namibia	- Zimbabwe
- Egypt	- Nepal
- Eritrea	- Nicaragua
- Ethiopia	- Niger
- Falklands Islands	- Occupied Palestinian Territory
- Gambia	- Oman
- Georgia	- Pakistan