S890 COLUMBIA JOURNAL OF TRANSNATIONAL LAW [56:S855 regimes that had bifurcated nationality into citizenship and some lesser status, under which individuals had particular work obligations and limited rights. 229 Only four States currently extend full civil and political rights to non-citizen permanent residents. 230 In 1975, New Zealand extended national voting rights to individuals who had been New Zealand permanent residents for at least one year. Chile, Malawi, and Uruguay also allow their permanent residents, albeit those who have held status for five, seven, and eight years, respectively, to vote in national elections. 231 Scholars have recognized these States as outliers, their practices as a “radical reform.” 232 Indeed, New Zealand federal agencies recognized that “[i]t may be questioned whether voting rights should be extended to those who have not become full citizens.” 233 Less radically, a number of States and municipalities enfranchise non-citizen permanent residents in local elections. 234 2. Opinio Juris Many States, in partnership with UNHCR, have taken an active stance against global statelessness. In 2011, the United States under former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton launched the Women’s Nationality Initiative, an attempt to end stateless birth by encouraging States to allow men and women to acquire and transmit nationality on an equal basis. 235 That same year, Southeast Asian 229. Id. 230. Several States have extended political rights to non-citizens on the basis of historical relations, as between former colonies and their colonizing States. Cristina Rodriguez, Noncitizen Voting and the Extraconstitutional Construction of the Polity, 8 ICON 30 (2010). 231. Id. at 34. 232. Fiona Barker & Kate McMillan, Constituting the Democratic Public: New Zealand’s Extension of National Voting Rights to Non-Citizens, 12 N.Z. J. PUB. INT’L L. 61, 79 (2014). 233. Royal Commission on the Electoral System Report of the Royal Commission on the Electoral System 1986 (11 December 1986) at ¶ 9.5. (N.Z.). 234. See, e.g., The Right to Vote, VALMYNDIGHETEN [Swedish Election Authority] (Apr. 20, 2018), https://www.val.se/servicelankar/other-languages/english-engelska/the-right-tovote.html [https://perma.cc/R3SE-SPGL]; Register to Vote, CITY OF TAKOMA PARK, MARYLAND, https://takomaparkmd.gov/register-to-vote/ [https://perma.cc/YGU5-5EYT]. 235. Statelessness, U.S. STATE DEP’T, BUREAU OF POPULATION, REFUGEES, AND MIGRATION, https://www.State.gov/j/prm/policyissues/issues/c50242.htm [https://perma.cc/ KTT7-2K2M]; Women’s Nationality Initiative: Fact Sheet, U.S. STATE DEP’T, BUREAU OF POPULATION, REFUGEES, AND MIGRATION (Mar. 8, 2012), https://2009-2017.State.gov/j/prm/ releases/releases/2012/185416.htm [https://perma.cc/6B3H-CMFK]. Electronic copy available at: https://ssrn.com/abstract=2954729