The Cabinet of Ministers of Ukraine has approved a draft law that regulates the mechanism of deprivation of state awards by applying an appropriate sanction.

Currently, there is still a legal conflict between the provisions of the Law on Sanctions and the Law on State Awards. The former stipulates that deprivation of state awards or other forms of distinction is one of the restrictive measures (sanctions) applied by the decision of the National Security and Defense Council of Ukraine, which is enacted by a relevant Decree of the President of Ukraine. The latter provides that a person may be deprived of state awards only in case of conviction of the awardee for a serious crime upon a court ruling.

The draft law currently approved by the Government proposes to amend Article 16 of the Law on State Awards to provide for the deprivation of state awards in the following cases:

• imposition on a person of an appropriate sanction stipulated by the Law on Sanctions;
• committing a particularly grave crime.

The draft law on amendment of certain provisions to implement the sanctions policy was developed by the Ministry of Justice on the instruction of the Prime Minister of Ukraine in response to a petition to deprive MP Yuriy Boyko of the title of Hero of Ukraine, which received 25,000 votes on the President’s website.

The approved amendments to the legislation will create legal grounds for deprivation of state awards by applying an appropriate sanction and will ensure the deprivation of awards for actions that contributed to causing real and/or potential threats to the national interests, national security, sovereignty and territorial integrity of Ukraine.