anti-personnel mine

The 1997 Mine Ban Treaty defines an anti-personnel mine in Article 2 as a mine designed to be exploded by the presence, proximity or contact of a person and that will incapacitate, injure or kill one or more persons. The trigger is the whole definition. What makes a mine anti-personnel is not its size or where it is laid, but that a person is what sets it off.

That wording draws a line the treaty then relies on. Mines built to be detonated by a vehicle rather than a person are outside it, and the treaty says explicitly that such mines are not considered anti-personnel mines merely because they are fitted with anti-handling devices. Anti-vehicle mines are therefore not banned by this convention at all.

The practical consequence is worth carrying into any story about clearance. A country that has met its obligations under this treaty has cleared the anti-personnel mines it knew about. It has not necessarily cleared anti-vehicle mines, and it has not cleared unexploded ordnance, which is a separate category with its own definition. Mine-free in the treaty sense is a precise and genuine achievement, and it is narrower than free of explosive hazards.