Judgment No CCZ 8/16 5 Const. Application No CCZ 48/15 “No person may be subjected to physical or psychological torture or to cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment.” Mr. Biti, for the applicant, contends that conditions in our prisons are so deplorable as to be intolerable and that fact in itself renders a life sentence in contravention of the fundamental rights of whole life prisoners. Mr. Chimombe, for the respondents, accepts that prison conditions are not perfect but counters that this alone cannot be a ground for holding a life sentence to be inhuman and degrading. In Kachingwe & Others v Minister of Home Affairs & Another 2005 (2) ZLR 12 (S), the Supreme Court had occasion to inspect the conditions in police holding cells at High lands Police Station. It was held that detention under those conditions amounted to inhuman and degrading punishment in violation of s 15(1) of the former Constitution. Mr. Biti argues that the conditions in Chikurubi Prison, as described by the applicant, are not dissimilar to those obtaining in Kachingwe’s case and should therefore be similarly denounced by this Court. As a preliminary interpretive point of departure, it is necessary to recognise the special status enjoyed by the rights and freedoms guaranteed by ss 51 and 53 of the Constitution. By virtue of paras (b) and (c) of s 86(3), no law may limit and no person may violate, inter alia, the right to human dignity and the right not to be tortured or subjected to cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment. What this means is that these two rights are inviolable. They cannot be circumscribed by reference to the