S886 COLUMBIA JOURNAL OF TRANSNATIONAL LAW [56:S855 emphasized, as the primary consequence of statelessness, that “a person cannot register to vote in the country in which he/she is living.” 206 A 2006 report stated that individuals could be stateless, even if they possessed a set of rights “identical to those attached to the possession of nationality, with the exception of certain limited civil and political rights.” 207 In its 2014 Special Report on Ending Statelessness Within 10 Years, UNHCR designated individuals with functional Estonian nationality—referred to as “undefined” or “undetermined” citizenship 208—stateless, as they can only vote in local elections and “still cannot stand as candidates, participate in national referenda or parliamentary elections or join a political party.” 209 One year later, UNHCR asserted, over Latvia’s protest, that individuals with functional Latvian nationality were stateless because they “cannot vote in any elections and cannot hold Government jobs.” 210 Though States and earlier scholars primarily associated nationality with access to diplomatic protection, UNHCR’s post-1995 writings deemphasize the relationship between nationality and diplomatic protection. In its 2005 handbook, UNHCR mentions diplomatic protection just three times, with no explanation of the concept. 211 2. Other Scholars Since the early 2000s, several scholars have equated nationality and citizenship, suggesting that the two are in effect indistinguishable in contemporary international law. Many of these scholars have suggested that nationality incorporates political rights. 212 These 206. U.N. HIGH COMMN’R FOR REFUGEES, NATIONALITY AND STATELESSNESS: A HANDBOOK FOR PARLIAMENTARIANS 6 (2005). 207. U.N. High Comm’r for Refugees, supra note 10, at 22 n.18 (2006). 208. Those with undefined citizenship have right of entry and exit, are issued special Estonian passports, and are entitled to vote in elections at the local level. European Network on Statelessness, Ending Childhood Statelessness: A Study on Estonia 1–2, 6 (2015), https://www.statelessness.eu/sites/www.statelessness.eu/files/Estonia.pdf [https://perma.cc/ 6CPW-4YSU]. 209. U.N. HIGH COMMN’R FOR REFUGEES, 2014 SPECIAL REPORT: STATELESSNESS WITHIN 10 YEARS 16 (2014). ENDING 210. U.N. HIGH COMMN’R FOR REFUGEES, UNHCR SUBMISSION ON LATVIA: UPR 24TH SESSION 12 (2015). 211. See generally U.N. HIGH COMMN’R FOR REFUGEES, supra note 206. 212. See, e.g., Spiro, supra note 172, at 739 (specifying that States “remain free to deny rights to noncitizen residents, especially in the realm of political rights”—suggesting that Electronic copy available at: https://ssrn.com/abstract=2954729