Article 3: Exceptions

Notwithstanding the general obligations under Article 1, the retention or transfer of a number of anti- personnel mines for the development of and training in mine detection, mine clearance, or mine destruction techniques is permitted. The amount of such mines shall not exceed the minimum number absolutely necessary for the above-mentioned purposes.

At the Fourth Review Conference, it was agreed that “Any State Party that retains antipersonnel mines for reasons permitted under Article 3 of the Convention will annually review the number of mines retained to ensure that they do not exceed the minimum number absolutely necessary for permitted purposes and will destroy all anti-personnel mines that exceed that number. The States Parties will report annually by 30 April on the use of retained mines and their destruction.”

The States Parties have also agreed that those retaining anti-personnel mines will “explore available alternatives to using live antipersonnel mines for training and research purposes where possible.”

Most States Parties have provided updated annual information on the number of anti-personnel mines retained for permitted purposes as required by Article 7, with 54 of them providing some level of voluntary information on the use (present and future) of retained anti-personnel mines.

By the conclusion of the 2024 Fifth Review Conference, 18 States Parties that had reported retaining anti-personnel mines in accordance with Article 3 had not submitted updated annual transparency reports for several years, and nine had reported the same quantities over multiple years — suggesting that these mines may not be used for their intended purposes or appropriately reported on.