RIGHTS BEHIND BARS A Study of Prison Conditions In Zimbabwe 2018 In May 1999 the Committee on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights (CESCR) developed General Comment No. 12 (1999) on the right to adequate food.34 The Committee explained that the realisation of the right to food requires everyone to individually and collectively have physical and economic access to adequate food, or to means for its procurement. General Comment 12 further outlines that the right to food implies that food should be available in sufficient quantities and adequate quality to satisfy the dietary needs of individuals, that it should be free from adverse substances, and that it should be culturally acceptable. 4.6. Access to clean water Access to water is an integral element of the right to an adequate standard of living.35 The right to water is arguably ‘one of the most critical fundamental conditions for survival’36 and hence, it is largely recognised as a critical element of the overall right to an adequate standard of living.37 Rule 20 of the Standard Minimum Rules for the Treatment of Prisoners provides that drinking water shall be available to every prisoner whenever he needs it. General Comment No. 15 explains that the legal content of the right to water as follows: The human right to water entitles everyone to sufficient, safe, acceptable, physically accessible and affordable water for personal and domestic uses. An adequate amount of safe water is necessary to prevent death from dehydration, to reduce the risk of water-related diseases and to provide for consumption, cooking, personal and domestic hygienic requirements.38 The Constitution also confers on every person the right to safe, clean and potable water. It further provides that detained persons have ‘the right to conditions of detention that are consistent with human dignity, including the provision at State expense of adequate accommodation, ablution facilities, personal hygiene’.39 Detainees’ and prisoners’ right of access to clean water is patently implied in this right. 4.7. The right to health care services Several international human rights instruments provide that prisoners and all detained persons have the right to the highest attainable standard of physical and mental health.40 Further, the Nelson Mandela Rules highlight that the State has the responsibility to ensure the provision of health care to prisoners, and to ensure that prisoners enjoy the same standard of health that is available to the community free 34 35 36 37 38 39 40 18 UN Committee on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights (CESCR), General Comment No. 12: The Right to Adequate Food (Art. 11 of the Covenant), 12 May 1999, available at: http://www.refworld.org/docid/4538838c11.html [accessed 27 December 2017]. See articles 11 and 12 of the Covenant General Comment 15, para 3. See also article 14(2) of the CEDAW and 28(2)(a) of the CRPD. General Comment 15, para 2, Committee on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights. Section 50(5)(d) of the Constitution. See articles 25 of the UDHR, 12(1) of the ICESCR; 16 of the ACHPR, 14 of the AWP, 25 of the CRPD and 3(f) of DEVAW. EGAP