<< I'm no specialist in international law, but this can't be a good idea.
Don't legal rights derive from citizenship? >>
Whether it is a good idea or not, not all legal rights derive from citizenship. It depends on the particular law of the country of course. In the US, noncitizens cannot vote, for example, but they cannot be arbitrarily jailed, tortured, shot, discriminated againsi on account of race or gender, prevented from contracting,. denied recourse to the courts to protect the rights they have, etc. Other countries will have a different bundle of legal rights available for noncitizens, but most will have something similar.
--jsk (a lawyer)