156 Lynch and Reynolds RI also took its concern regarding the plight of the world’s stateless people to every other accessible audience - US government officials, peer NGOs, academics, human rights and refugee organizations, the development community, and to stateless groups, encouraging them to organize and advocate on their own behalf. The year would prove significant in other ways. Internationally, RI organized a side event on statelessness at the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe’s Office for Democratic Institutions and Human Rights (OSCEODIHR) and a panel briefing for the 84th Session of the Human Rights Committee, with a focus on the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR). As a result of the latter, attendees made immediate interventions with delegations from Thailand, Syria, and Slovenia. The United Nations Commission on Human Rights (now the Human Rights Council) passed a resolution on Arbitrary Deprivation of Nationality, which called for a UN Secretary General’s report to be issued within the year.6 At home in Washington, RI arranged dozens of meetings with Congressional offices, organized the first Congressional Human Rights Caucus briefing on statelessness with the support of Holocaust survivor Congressman Tom Lantos,7 and RI’s then-president Ken Bacon issued the first of what would be many letters to the U.S. Secretary of State, the Assistant Secretary for BPRM, and the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights. Before the year’s end, RI undertook a field trip to Syria in order to learn more about the situation of stateless Kurds and presented a field-based paper on statelessness and health at the American Public Health Association 133rd annual meeting in Philadelphia.8 In April 2005, the Inter-American Court for Human Rights issued its judgment in the case of Yean and Bosico vs Dominican Republic, a landmark ruling with future ramifications for RI’s work and that of many others.9 Over the years, RI continued to undertake multiple country visits each year, totaling well over a dozen countries to date, and issued field reports and a few longer illustrated publications to highlight the situation of each stateless population. These trips were always followed by targeted advocacy. In 2006, a staff member 6 http://www.refworld.org/pdfid/429c3b694.pdf 7 Citation to US DOS testimony: http://2001-2009.state.gov/g/prm/rls/45288.htm 8 M Lynch, ‘Statelessness and Health’ (2005) Paper presented at the 133rd meeting of the American Public Health Association. Abstract available online at <https://apha.confex.com/ apha/133am/techprogram/paper_108999.htm) accessed 23 October 2013; citation to US DOS testimony: http://2001-2009.state.gov/g/prm/rls/45288.htm. 9 Inter-American Court of Human Rights Girls Yean and Bosico v Dominican Republic (2008) ILM 130, para 172. tilburg law review 19 (2014) 153-162