RIGHTS BEHIND BARS A Study of Prison Conditions In Zimbabwe 2018 this report. They are also particularly critical in that they outline specific provisions which are tailor made for persons deprived of their liberty. This is important as persons deprived of their liberty have peculiar needs, since they are in unique circumstances and are particularly vulnerable. The ‘soft law’ therefore complements the provisions outlined in the ‘hard law’ by providing precise context specific details. The Constitution of Zimbabwe Amendment (No. 20) Act, 2013 (the Constitution) also contains provisions which protect persons that have been deprived of their liberty. In this report, the Forum highlights the international law and constitutional provisions governing conditions of pre-trial detention, cell conditions and bedding, access to education and vocational training facilities while in detention; access to clothing, bedding, food and clean water, access to health care and prisoners’ right to dignity in so far as they affect persons deprived of their liberty. The central idea is to discuss the international and domestic standards relating to conditions of detention and to assess the compliance of selected prisons and conditions of detention with the Zimbabwean Constitution and international standards on prison conditions. More importantly, the discussion takes place with a view to making recommendations for reforms and proposing key priority areas for decisive intervention. The collection of valid and reliable data relating to conditions of detention was necessary for the Forum to have a better understanding of both the challenges faced by inmates in the prisons and the attitudes, perceptions and beliefs of prison officers particularly with regards to their understanding of their duties under national and international law. To this end, the Forum extensively relied on the information supplied to them by the prisoners and prison officials that were visited for purposes of monitoring compliance with national and international standards. Lastly, the Forum adopted a thematic approach to the research, opting to identify specific human rights themes from the prison monitoring visit reports and use that information as the basis for measuring the compliance of specific practices in custodial institutions against the standards that are articulated in national and international law 12 EGAP