Federal Act
on War Materiel
(War Materiel Act, WMA)

¹ It is pro­hib­ited:

a.

to de­vel­op, pro­duce, broker, ac­quire, trans­fer to any­one, im­port, ex­port, carry in trans­it, or store anti-per­son­nel mines or to pos­sess them in any oth­er way;

b.

to in­cite any per­son to carry out an act men­tioned in let­ter a;

c.

to as­sist in com­mit­ting an act men­tioned in let­ter a⁹.

² For the de­vel­op­ment of pro­ced­ures in mine de­tec­tion, mine clear­ance, or mine de­struc­tion tech­niques and for train­ing in such pro­ced­ures, the re­ten­tion or trans­fer of a num­ber of anti-per­son­nel mines is per­mit­ted. The num­ber of such mines shall not ex­ceed the min­im­um num­ber ab­so­lutely ne­ces­sary for the above-men­tioned pur­poses.¹⁰

³ Anti-per­son­nel mines are ex­plos­ive devices that are placed un­der, on, or near the ground or any oth­er sur­face and which are con­ceived or mod­i­fied so as to ex­plode as a res­ult of the pres­ence, ap­proach, or con­tact of a per­son, and which are in­ten­ded to in­ca­pa­cit­ate, in­jure or kill one or more per­sons. Mines de­signed to be det­on­ated by the pres­ence, prox­im­ity or con­tact of a vehicle as op­posed to a per­son that are equipped with anti-hand­ling devices¹¹ are not con­sidered anti-per­son­nel mines as a res­ult of be­ing so equipped.¹²

⁴ “Anti-hand­ling device” means a device in­ten­ded to pro­tect a mine and which is part of, linked to, at­tached to or placed un­der the mine and which ac­tiv­ates when an at­tempt is made to tamper with or oth­er­wise in­ten­tion­ally dis­turb the mine.¹³