site.btaWriter Toso Doncsev Receives Hungary's Justitia Regnorum Fundamentum Award

Bulgarian writer Toso Doncsev has received the Justitia Regnorum Fundamentum Award on a recommendation from Hungary's Deputy Commissioner for the Rights of National Minorities, Elisabeth Sandor-Szalay. The award was presented by the Commissioner for Fundamental Rights, Akos Kozma, BTA learned from Gabriella Hadzsikosztova, who is responsible for the cultural events of the Bulgarian community in Hungary and its monthly newsletter.

The Justitia Regnorum Fundamentum Award, instituted by the Ombudsmen in 2007, is granted for outstanding accomplishment, professional activities or career to people who have achieved, or contributed to the achievement of, extraordinary results in the protection of fundamental human and civil rights, in particular the rights of the child and other vulnerable groups, the rights of national minorities and the environment.

Doncsev was born in Budapest in 1944 to a Hungarian mother and a Bulgarian father. He studied in Budapest and Sofia. He is a writer, translator, sociologist, member of the Hungarian Writers Union and of the Union of Bulgarian Writers (since 2014). Seven of his books have been published in Bulgarian and nine in Hungarian. He has been involved in many Bulgarian-Hungarian projects in culture and education. He set up the Pro Schola Bulgarica Foundation in 1994, has been Honorary Chairman of the Bulgarian Cultural Forum since 2003, and was director of the Hungarian Institute in Sofia between 2011 and 2015.

Toso Doncsev has been awarded many distinctions in Bulgaria and Hungary. In 2023, he was granted the Third of March Award for his contribution to the Bulgarian community by the Bulgarian National Self-Government in Hungary.