CAT/C/POL/CO/5-6 for their specific needs during the refugee status determination process (arts. 3, 10, 11 and 16). The Committee recommends that the State Party take all necessary measures to ensure the identification of vulnerable asylum seekers who are victims of torture and provide them with the support they require, including treatment and counselling. Furthermore, all relevant personnel, including medical personnel, should receive specific training on how to identify signs of torture and ill-treatment. To this end, the Manual on Effective Investigation and Documentation of Torture and Other Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment (Istanbul Protocol) should be further disseminated. Electrical discharge weapons 15. The Committee notes that the legislation of 9 April 2010 on the Border Guard provides for border guards to use electrical stunning devices, and that the State party considers the use of these devices (such as tasers) to be less lethal than that of firearms. However, the Committee remains concerned that the use of electrical stunning devices may contravene the Convention and, in some cases, even cause death (arts. 2 and 16). The State party should ensure that the use of electrical discharge weapons is exclusively limited to extreme situations — where there is a real and immediate threat to life or risk of serious injury — and that these weapons are used only by trained law enforcement personnel as a substitute for lethal weapons. The State party should revise the regulations governing the use of such weapons with a view to establishing a high threshold for their use and expressly prohibiting their use on children and pregnant women. The Committee is of the view that the use of electrical discharge weapons should be subject to the principles of necessity and proportionality and that they should not be included in the regular equipment of custodial staff in prisons or any other place of deprivation of liberty. The Committee urges the State party to provide detailed instructions and training to law enforcement personnel who are entitled to use electric discharge weapons, and to strictly monitor and supervise their use. The Optional Protocol and a national preventive mechanism 16. The Committee notes that in 2008, the State party entrusted the Office of the Ombudsman with carrying out the functions of a national preventive mechanism. The Committee regrets that the resources allocated to that Office prevent it from carrying out that mandate effectively (art. 2). In the light of the Optional Protocol to the Convention and in keeping with the guidelines on national preventive mechanisms (CAT/OP/12/5, paras. 7, 8 and 16), the Committee recommends that the State party ensure that the national preventive mechanism is endowed with sufficient resources to discharge its mandate effectively and on a fully independent basis. Training 17. The Committee welcomes the wide range of educational programmes currently in place for law enforcement officials, prisons staff, border guards and medical personnel, including training on the Istanbul Protocol. However, the Committee is concerned that it is the training institutions themselves that assess the courses and that there is no evaluation of their practical impact on the incidence of torture and ill-treatment (art. 10). The Committee recommends that the State party develop specific methodologies to guarantee more objective and comprehensive evaluation of the training and education courses on the absolute prohibition of torture and ill-treatment that are provided to 5