Yap Thiam Hien (25 May 1913 in Kutaraja, Aceh, Dutch East Indies – 29 April 1989 in Brussels) was an Indonesian human rights lawyer.
His father was Yap Sin Eng and his mother was Hwan Tjing Nio. He was one of the most notable people from Chinese heritage in Indonesia. As an advocate, he always fought for human rights, he realized that defense of minority rights made sense only as part of the larger struggle for the rights of all citizens.
Yap moved from place to place when he was young to pursue his studies. He obtained the Meester de Rechten degree from Faculty of Law, Leiden University, Netherlands in 1947. He returned to Indonesia and started his career as lawyer in Jakarta. In 1950, he opened a law firm together with John Karwin,and later joined the firm of Lie Hwee Yoe. He opened his own law firm in 1970. Since then, he has fought for human rights and for justice and equality for ethnic minorities and the poor. He was one of the founding members of PERADIN (Persatuan Advokat Indonesia) and served as the leader.
Together with Buyung Nasution, Yap was one of the founders of Yayasan Lembaga Bantuan Hukum Indonesia (YLBHI), formerly known as Lembaga Bantuan Hukum (LBH), which was a legal aid society to help the poor.
In order to fight discriminative action toward Indonesian Chinese, in 1954 Yap was an early member of BAPERKI (Badan Permusyawaratan Kewarganegaraan Indonesia), an organization originally dedicated to obtaining citizenship for ethnic Chinese. After the 1965 fall of the Soekarno regime, BAPERKI was accused of having links with the PKI and was banned by the new Suharto regime.
While attending the International NGO Forum on Indonesian Development conference in Brussels, Yap suffered from internal bleeding and was treated at St. Augustin Hospital for two days before he finally died on April 25, 1989.
The Yap Thiam Hien Award is a human rights award named after him to commemorate his steadfastness and commitment. The Yap Thiam Hien Award Program has been managed by the Human Rights Study Center Foundation (Yayasan Pusat Studi Hak Asasi Manusia or YAPUSHAM) since 1992.