Serbian writer Vida Ognjenovic is the 2012 winner of the International Humanist Award presented by the Ohrid Humanism Academy in Macedonia, and the decision for Ognjenovic to receive this significant recognition was made by the seven-member jury, the Arhipelag publishing house released Monday.

The International Humanist Award was presented to Vida Ognjenovic at the official ceremony held at the Urania House in Ohrid that belongs to the Macedonian Academy of Sciences and Arts.

The award was established in 2007 in memory of Saint Clement of Ohrid, the founder of the first medieval school of humanism in Europe, and is given to significant figures of modern culture and art.

Earlier winners include Japanese Buddhist philosopher Daisaku Ikeda (2007), Portuguese movie director Manoel de Oliveira (2008), Russian writer and Nobel Prize winner Aleksandr Solzhenitsy (2009), Indian composer, humanist and philosopher Ravi Shankar (2010) and British theatre director Peter Brook (2011).