Back in 2006, Israel's profligate use of cluster munitions in Lebanon caught the public eye, nowhere more so than in the Arab world.

Germany’s ratification of the new treaty banning cluster munitions is an important step.

The Convention on Cluster Munitions clearly permits joint military operations, but countries that have joined the treaty should prohibit all assistance with using cluster munitions. They should remember the purpose behind the treaty they negotiated and make no exceptions.

Countries that have signed the new treaty banning cluster munitions should not in any way facilitate the use of this weapon, even in joint military operations with allies that have not joined the treaty.

The prohibition on cluster munitions is firmly taking hold as more countries join the new treaty banning the weapon and hold-out states shift their policies in the right direction, says a report jointly released today by Human Rights Watch, Landmine Action, and Landmine Monitor.

The loss of lives and livelihoods from cluster munitions used by Russia and Georgia during the August 2008 armed conflict reinforces the importance of the new treaty banning the weapon.

A new US law permanently banning nearly all cluster bomb exports by the United States will end a long period of transfers of the weapon to Israel and other countries in the Middle East and North Africa.

Legislation signed into law on March 11, 2009 by President Obama will make permanent a ban on nearly all cluster bomb exports by the United States.