Fewer people were killed and injured by landmines in 2013 than in any previous year, and nearly all use and production of the weapon has ceased, said the latest annual report of the Nobel Prize-winning International Campaign to Ban Landmines (ICBL). Landmine Monitor 2014 was released on the seventeenth anniversary of the signing of the Mine Ban Treaty.

“While far too many people are still losing their lives and limbs to landmines, new casualties are at their lowest level ever recorded—possibly the best measure of how successful the Mine Ban Treaty has been,” said Megan Burke, casualties and victim assistance editor of Landmine Monitor. “But we can’t forget that there are hundreds of thousands of landmine survivors waiting for their needs to be met and their rights to be fulfilled,” Burke added.

In 2013, the recorded number of casualties caused by mines and other explosive remnants of war decreased to 3,308—the lowest level since the Monitor started recording casualties in 1999—and nearly one-quarter fewer than in 2012. In 2013, there was an average of nine victims per day, indicating that many lives are being saved when compared to the 25 each day reported in 1999. As in previous years, the vast majority of the recorded casualties were civilians (79%).

With the August 2014 accession by Oman, a total of 162 countries are now States Parties to the treaty. Of only 35 states still outside the agreement, almost all abide by its key provisions, indicating near-universal acceptance of the mine ban norm.

There was no confirmed use of landmines by a member of the Mine Ban Treaty in the reporting period, from September 2013 to October 2014. There has only been one confirmed instance of a violation of the ban on use by a State Party, by Yemen in 2011.

Stocks of antipersonnel mines are present in the ongoing conflict in Ukraine between government forces and Russian-backed separatists, although it is not yet possible to determine whether antipersonnel mines have been used. Ukraine is a State Party to the treaty.

As recorded in the last year’s report, the Monitor again confirmed new use of antipersonnel mines by the government forces of Syria and Myanmar, states still outside the Mine Ban Treaty, as well as in the internationally unrecognized breakaway area of Nagorno-Karabakh; but the latest report found a sharp decline in new use in Myanmar.

Non-state armed groups used antipersonnel mines or victim-activated improvised explosive devices in Afghanistan, Colombia, Libya, Myanmar, Pakistan, Syria, and Yemen, one fewer country (Tunisia) than reported in Landmine Monitor 2013.

More than 48 million stockpiled antipersonnel mines have been destroyed since 1999 and just six States Parties have yet to complete destruction of their stockpiles.

For the past decade, the global trade in antipersonnel mines has consisted of a very low level of illicit and unacknowledged transfers, but the appearance of mines in Sudan and Yemen indicates that some form of market for, and trade in, antipersonnel mines exists.

Today, 56 states (32 of which are treaty members) and four other areas (Kosovo, Nagorno-Karabakh, Somaliland, and Western Sahara) are known to have hazardous antipersonnel landmine contaminated areas. However, within the next five years, 40 of these states and three other areas are fully capable of completing the mine clearance obligations of the treaty if adequate resources are available.

The treaty obligates each State Party to clear all mined areas in its jurisdiction or control within a 10-year period, with provision for extension requests to be approved by member states.