Yesh Din – Volunteers for Human Rights is an Israeli organization registered as a non-profit in Israel.  Since it was established in 2005, Yesh Din’s volunteers and staff have worked for structural, long-term improvement to human rights in the Occupied Palestinian Territory (OPT). Yesh Din views the occupation as a main source of the violation of the human rights of the Palestinian population and therefore seeks to end it. Our name – there is a law – reflects the belief that equitable application of local and international law is an important component in upholding human rights.

At the core of Yesh Din’s work is collecting and disseminating reliable and updated information regarding systematic human rights violations in the OPT; conducting public and legal advocacy in order to pressure Israel’s authorities to cease violations; and raising public awareness to human rights violations in the OPT. To this end, Yesh Din is assisted by a professional staff of legal professionals and experts in the field of human rights.

Yesh Din’s activities focus on the extent of Israel’s implementation of its duty to protect the Palestinian civilians under its armed forces’ occupation. These include: criminal accountability of Israeli civilians and members of the Israeli security forces in the West Bank, and human rights violations related to takeover of Palestinian lands and restricting Palestinians’ access to their land.

Yesh Din has a two-tiered approach to protecting human rights. We work on individual cases to achieve justice for those whose rights have been violated. On the systemic level, we use the accumulation of individual incidents to highlight structural violations of human rights and advocate for change, through a variety of means: we publish reports and disseminate information on human rights abuses; we take legal actions and engage in direct advocacy with the authorities in order to remedy the situation; and we work with the media to encourage debate on these issues.