In this article, the phenomenon of anti-personnel mines as a type of weapon posing a particular humanitarian threat is examined. Based on analysis of international conventions, statistical data, and historical evidence, a comprehensive picture of the impact of this weapon on the civilian population, the international community's efforts to ban it, and current trends related to a number of states withdrawing from the Ottawa Convention is reconstructed. Special attention is given to defining anti-personnel mines, their classification, the history of their use, and the current state of the problem.