S’porean lawyer wins global award for parliamentary work, advocacy for groups like migrant workers

“Most lawyers in Singapore who do public interest work do so at the margins of a conventional career, a compromise Charmaine refused,” wrote Chong, a seven-term MP. They met in 2018 through non-governmental organisation ASEAN Parliamentarians for Human Rights.

He added that Yap has shown that legal excellence and service to justice are not in tension, including through her advocacy for migrant workers, refugees, single parents and other vulnerable groups.

In Nee Soon, she organised activities for migrant cleaners, visited their families in Dhaka and wrote letters of support for visa applications to help some reunite with their wives or children in Singapore. 

Law Society of Singapore president Tan Cheng Han said Yap’s recognition on the world stage shows what the country’s young lawyers are capable of.

“We hope her achievement will inspire the new generation of Singapore lawyers to build careers of meaning and impact, and to treat access to justice as part of what it means to practise law,” he added.

More than drafting speeches

Yap’s foray into parliamentary work began in 2016 when she met Ng while interning at animal welfare group ACRES and urged the newly elected MP to speak up for migrant workers. 

Ng suggested that she join his legislative team to raise those issues from within Parliament – which she promptly did, and stayed till Ng retired from politics in 2025.

During the nine years, one of her key contributions was to help the public and civil society groups understand parliamentary processes and how to raise their concerns through questions and motions.

Behind all of what Ng raised in the House were hours of consultations and research by his legislative team, said Yap.

For the food donation act, they consulted hotels, restaurants, supermarkets, bakeries and food charities and the public. These engagements also show Singaporeans that they could help shape legislation, she added.

Yap, who returned to Singapore in June after completing a master’s degree in law at Columbia University, said she does not plan to take up another legislative assistant role.

She wants to find her own voice, she said. “I feel that I’ve done all that I can to push for those issues in another person’s voice in Parliament. I should be finding my own way of contributing.”

She has resumed volunteering with migrant worker advocacy group Transient Workers Count Too.

She is also examining more practical alternatives to transporting migrant workers on lorries and whether catered meals delivered to migrant workers comply with food-safety requirements.

She hopes to get illegal employment kickbacks – where employers collect money from migrant workers in exchange for jobs or continued employment – to be treated as seriously as corruption offences.

Yap researched the issue at Columbia and is seeking to publish her findings.

Under the Employment of Foreign Manpower Act, a person who collects employment kickbacks can be jailed for up to two years and fined $30,000, compared with five years’ jail and a $100,000 fine for a general corruption offence under the Prevention of Corruption Act.

But without the “convening power” of an MP’s office, she said she now has to find new ways to bring people together to effect change.

Still, her years working with Ng has taught her that change does not always require reaching the most senior decision-maker.

A fan of organisational charts, Yap frequently consulted the Singapore Government Directory to identify who was responsible for different decisions.

“What’s more helpful is to understand who the decision-makers are and what levels decisions are being made at, and try and figure out – if you want to change something – at what point of the process do you have to engage with,” she said.

Asked if she would consider joining politics having seen first-hand how it can achieve change, Yap said she had mulled over the possibility and did not rule it out.

For now, she wants to try to see through policy changes in the causes she cares about from outside Parliament.

“(But) anyone who wants to do work that involves policy change must seriously consider joining politics since it’s one way of changing things.”