In the modern science of international law and European law, insufficient attention is paid to the problem of protecting the rights and freedoms of convicts, their typology. Especially in the conditions of modern threats and challenges, there are numerous violations of various categories of the population, including the vulnerable, who are in the temporarily occupied territories. This causes the attention of scientists, as well as representatives of authorized authorities, to be drawn to certain theoretical and practical problems of protecting the rights and freedoms of convicts, their varieties, effective mechanisms of protection, restoration of violated rights.
 Therefore, the purpose of the article is to analyze the existing doctrinal sources and relevant approaches, criteria for the classification of international legal obligations on the rights and freedoms of convicts, to highlight their special varieties, effective mechanisms for the protection of the rights and freedoms of convicts.
 There are many types of international legal obligations on the rights and freedoms of convicts, as well as criteria and approaches to their classification. Along with international legal obligations, other related categories are used in the science and practice of international law – international legal mechanisms, international legal standards. Undoubtedly, they also concern the rights and freedoms of convicts, they are interacting but not identical concepts. The analyzed classification groups of international legal mechanisms, standards and obligations to ensure the rights and freedoms of convicts are based on established approaches to the typology of human rights and freedoms, existing international legal norms and principles in this field. At the same time, the penitentiary systems of specific states, including Ukraine, are characterized by specificities, features of national legislation, national penitentiary policy, institutional and other mechanisms.
 Reports of international experts and monitoring measures demonstrate certain problems in the way of fulfilling international legal obligations regarding the rights and freedoms of convicts in Ukraine. Therefore, further systematic studies of the European penitentiary concept, the best foreign practices of compliance with such obligations, decisions of the ECtHR, the strengthening of a human-centered approach in the activities of penitentiary authorities, the functioning of an effective legal system that would protect human rights and freedoms regardless of the conditions in which she stays without being discriminated against, without additional restrictions caused by the fact of isolation.