Anti-personnel Landmines in Modern Armed Conflicts. Legal Regulations and the Scope of Application

The aim of the research presented in the article is both to describe and analyse the problem of use of the anti-personnel mines in armed conflicts and the subsequent effects that landmines, in particular anti-personnel mines, have on human health and life. The article discusses a number of problems to solve related to the land mine use long after the end of the armed conflict. The basic source of knowledge concerning legal regulations determining the use of anti-personnel mines are international conventions. In Polish scientific literature, it is difficult to find materials that contain, apart from the contents of the documents themselves, comments and interpretations on the application of international law. In order to explore the above-mentioned issues, it was necessary to make use of the studies of international organizations. The issue of anti-personnel landmine threat and the support to their victims is widely presented in the work of the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC), the International Campaign to Ban Landmines (ICBL), human rights organizations, and others.