Landmines, cluster bombs and other unexploded ordnance claim thousands of lives every year. Many victims are civilians, often killed or maimed long after war has ended.

Anti-personnel mines can stay in the soil for decades, posing a threat to farmers, animal herders and children.

Along with unexploded ordnance, they present a serious impediment to resettling shattered communities at the end of a conflict.

The movement to outlaw these weapons took off in 1992 when a handful of humanitarian groups founded the International Campaign to Ban Landmines (ICBL), a cause kept in the headlines by Princess Diana among others.

Lobbying led to the 1997 Mine Ban Treaty. The ICBL and its coordinator, Jody Williams, won the Nobel Peace Prize the same year.

The treaty has succeeded in stigmatising the use of landmines throughout the world to such an extent that most states and even some rebel groups have now declared they won't use them.

In 2008, only two countries were confirmed to be using landmines - Myanmar and Russia. The ICBL says Myanmar has continued to use mines in its Karen and Pegu regions, and Russia uses mines in Chechnya. There are also serious allegations that Sri Lanka's armed forces have been using mines but these could not be verified.

More than 80 percent of states have joined the Mine Ban Treaty, including many nations that at one time produced mines. Major countries that haven't signed include the United States, Russia and China.

For the purposes of this briefing the words mines and landmines are used to mean anti-personnel mines except where otherwise stated.

Non-state armed groups are now the major users of landmines. In 2008 they were used by such groups in at least nine countries - Afghanistan, Colombia, Ecuador, India, Iraq, Myanmar, Pakistan, Peru and Sri Lanka.

However, with so many countries having halted production and destroyed stockpiles it is now harder for rebel groups to obtain factory-made mines. Some groups lift them from the ground or buy them from corrupt officials. But many now make their own improvised devices.

The FARC rebel group in Colombia is one of the world's largest users of mines, causing hundreds of casualties a year. The majority are improvised rather than factory-made. The ELN rebel group in Colombia also uses mines. The Colombian government has linked the location of mines to coca routes.

There are also many countries where there are unconfirmed reports of rebels using mines. However, an increasing number of armed groups are embracing a mine ban. These include groups in Burundi, Philippines, Senegal, Sudan, Nepal and Kashmir.

The adoption of the Mine Ban Treaty in 1997 marked the first time that nations agreed to ban a weapon that was already in widespread use.

Signatories agree they will not use, develop, manufacture, stockpile or trade in anti-personnel landmines and that they will clear minefields and destroy stockpiles.

Even campaigners have been surprised by how fast it has been taken up. And many countries that haven't joined the treaty largely abide by its core obligations.

The Mine Ban Treaty, also called the Ottawa Convention, does not ban remote-controlled mines or anti-tank mines, which require a lot of pressure to detonate.

Many insurgent groups, like those in Iraq, use what are known as improvised explosive devices or IEDs. Those that are victim activated are considered as anti-personnel mines and banned under the treaty, but remote-controlled IEDs are not.

Signatories are required to clear all mined areas under their control within 10 years of joining the treaty. But two thirds of countries with deadlines in 2009 - 15 states - have said they won't finish in time and have requested extensions. Britain, which is responsible for clearing mined areas on the Falkland Islands, has failed even to begin clearance operations.

Removal of landmines is dangerous, slow and costly. Deminers armed with metal detectors and metal prods have to clear heavily mined sections manually, inch by inch.

Dogs and machines are used in some programmes, but clearance agencies remain divided over their efficacy. One organisation is using rats for mine detection in Mozambique.

Several factors make demining work very slow. Firstly, it is extremely rare to have a meaningful map showing the locations of mines. Secondly, mined areas are very often heavily overgrown. Deminers have to remove every bit of vegetation, all the while checking for trip wires, before they can start combing the area. It may also not be possible to use a metal detector in soil with a high metal content or along railway lines.

Many deminers are killed every year - 120 in 2007, according to Landmine Monitor, the ICBL's monitoring arm. But the mines are not always the only danger. In Afghanistan deminers have been killed by Taliban insurgents. Poor security has also hampered demining operations in Iraq and Sri Lanka.

Deminers focus on clearing areas that will have the most benefit to civilians - for instance contaminated land near wells and water sources or land needed for farming or raising livestock.

More than 70 states, as well as six areas not internationally recognised, are believed to be affected by mines but there is no reliable estimate of the amount of land that is contaminated.

For a full list of affected countries and progress on clearance see the Landmine Monitor's Mine Action section.

Signatories to the treaty are also required to destroy their stockpiles within four years and most have already done so.

But an estimated 176 million mines are still held by countries around the world. The vast majority belong to three states outside the treaty: China (estimated 110 million), Russia (26.5 million) and the United States (10.4 million). Other states with large stockpiles include Pakistan and India.

Three countries with significant stockpiles - Belarus, Greece and Turkey - are in serious violation of the treaty after failing to destroy their weapons by a 2008 deadline. Between them they hold 7.6 million mines.

Mines are specifically designed to shatter limbs beyond repair. They are an unusual weapon in that their purpose is to maim rather than kill - the idea being that the enemy has to use up more resources caring for injured fighters than dead ones.

Mine blast survivors not only have to deal with amputation and lifelong physical disability but also social, psychological and economic implications.

In 2007, civilians accounted for more than 70 percent of victims of mines, IEDs and other explosives left over from war, according to records compiled by Landmine Monitor. Children accounted for nearly a third of all casualties and nearly half of civilian casualties.

Boys between five and 14 years are a particularly high-risk group. Many are in the fields herding animals. Others may detonate mines or pick up explosive debris while playing outdoors.

Colombia remains the country with the highest number of recorded casualties - more than 17 a week. Myanmar, Chad, India, Iraq, Vietnam and Turkey and Laos all saw increases in 2007, according to Landmine Monitor.

But the global annual death and injury toll has fallen significantly. For a long time it was estimated there were 15,000-20,000 new casualties a year. But in 2007, the recorded figure was 5,426 (1,401 killed and 3,939 injured and 86 unknown).

However, the real toll is certainly higher as records in most affected countries are inadequate or non-existent.

Civilian casualties occur mostly in rural areas as people go about their daily activities. Economic necessity means they often have to go into areas they know to be dangerous, as in Lebanon and Vietnam. Scrap metal collection is another significant cause of accidents in Laos, Iraqi Kurdistan, Nicaragua and Peru.

Click here for Landmine Monitor's report on casualties.

Mines are not the only leftovers of war that kill and maim long after fighting has ended.

Anti-landmine campaigners have now turned their attention to cluster bombs, which they blame for maiming and killing tens of thousands of civilians.

Cluster bombs are dropped from planes or fired by mortars. The canisters open in mid-air releasing a multitude of bomblets that scatter over a wide area.

A single canister can contain hundreds of bomblets. Most explode immediately, but others - up to 10 percent by some estimates - don't. They can be triggered years later by touch, motion or even static electricity from someone's clothes.

The bomblets, which are designed to pierce tank armour, carry more explosives than an anti-personnel landmine. But their shape and size are appealing to children, who often mistake them for toys. Campaigners say a third of recorded cluster munitions casualties are children.

The Soviets first used cluster munitions in World War Two against Nazi tanks. They have also been used in Vietnam, Cambodia, Laos, Congo, Chechnya, the former Yugoslavia, Sierra Leone, Iraq, Afghanistan and most recently Lebanon.

In Laos, which was heavily bombed during the Vietnam war, the International Committee of the Red Cross has estimated there are 9 to 27 million unexploded submunitions. (See this AlertNet feature: Laos still paying the price of Vietnam war)

In Lebanon, the U.N. estimates that Israel rained up to 4 million submunitions over the south of the country during a 2006 war against Hezbollah guerrillas.

The bomblets that failed to detonate are still maiming and killing people in the south where much of the land is used for crops and grazing.

And in the Balkans, civilians are wounded or killed every year by explosive debris while ploughing fields or collecting wood in forests. The former Yugoslav countries will need another decade to clear affected areas.

In May 2008, more than 100 nations agreed to ban cluster bombs. They began signing the new treaty in December and the pact is due to come into force in 2009.

The convention bans the use, production, stockpiling and trade of the weapon. It requires states that sign to destroy stockpiles within eight years, to clear contaminated areas within 10 years and to help victims, their families and affected communities.

The agreement follows a Norwegian initiative known as the Oslo Process. But big arms producers such as the United States, China and Russia have not taken part.

However, Steve Goose of Human Rights Watch says the treaty will have a powerful effect, even on those who do not sign right away.

"We've seen it with the landmine treaty, where even governments who decided not to join are largely abiding by the provisions. They don't want to risk public condemnation. We think this will happen with cluster munitions as well," Goose says.