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658 Travaux préparatoires: United Nations Convention against Transnational Organized Crimearticle 8 of the draft protocol that would require on each firearm marking that would providethe country and place of manufacture, the name of the manufacturer and the serialnumber. The representative of the United States requested that the report of the Ad HocCommittee on its twelfth session should indicate that her Government reserved its positionon article 8, paragraph 1, of the draft protocol, but would not block the submissionof the approved text to the General Assembly for adoption. With regard to article 8 of thedraft protocol, the United States believed that a number of useful proposals that wouldhave clarified the text of paragraph 1 (a) of that article had not been given adequate considerationby the Ad Hoc Committee. At a minimum, the United States believed that thetravaux préparatoires should reflect the common understanding that the provision of article8, paragraph 1 (a), that read “maintain any alternative unique user-friendly markingwith simple geometric symbols in combination with a numeric and/or alphanumeric code”was intended to apply only to those countries which were currently using a marking systemthat included symbols as part of its unique identifier and, further, that such countrieswould, in most cases, mark the firearm with the name of the country of manufacture anda simple geometric symbol in combination with a serial number. The observer for theEuropean Commission requested that the report of the Ad Hoc Committee on its twelfthsession should reflect his statement on behalf of the European Community on article 8 ofthe draft protocol. The observer had requested the inclusion of the word “system” beforethe words “with simple geometric symbols” in article 8, paragraph 1 (a) of the draft protocol.The observer had proposed that amendment in order to clarify the text and the additionhad no effect on the meaning of the phrase. The observer had also requested theaddition of the words “and of the individual firearm” at the end of paragraph 1 (a) of article8 in order to avoid an erroneous interpretation of that paragraph. According to theobserver, the unique marking of firearms was aimed at identifying in a unique way eachfirearm, while at the same time permitting the ready identification of the country of manufacture,and should not be understood as being aimed only at the ready identification ofthe country of manufacture. See also article 3 of the present protocol for the statementmade by Turkey before the approval of the draft protocol, in which he highlighted, interalia, that his Government had been insisting throughout the negotiation process on an effectivemarking system not only for firearms, but also for their parts and components andammunition. His Government had made several proposals to improve the text, but it hadnot been possible to achieve consensus on including parts and components of firearmswithin the marking system.B. Approved text adopted by the General Assembly(see resolution 55/255, annex)Article 8Marking of firearms1. For the purpose of identifying and tracing each firearm, States Partiesshall:(a) At the time of manufacture of each firearm, either require uniquemarking providing the name of the manufacturer, the country or place of manufactureand the serial number, or maintain any alternative unique user-friendlymarking with simple geometric symbols in combination with a numeric and/oralphanumeric code, permitting ready identification by all States of the country ofmanufacture;(b) Require appropriate simple marking on each imported firearm, permittingidentification of the country of import and, where possible, the year of import