World Passports, shown in our movie,
are issued by
The World Service Authority in Washington D.C.,
the administrative arm of the World Citizen Government.
You can see their latest newsletter here.
Great thinkers from Socrates and Thomas Paine, to Mahatma Gandhi, Albert Einstein and Martin Luther King have all called themselves Citizens of the World -- joining the chorus of wise sages who have declared that we are all one.
Garry Davis created the World Passport as a way to embody that wisdom into physical form -- a potent symbol of our oneness -- that you can hold, feel and use.
Over the years his World Service Authority (WSA) has issued Honorary World Passport to luminaries such as Joan Baez, Levar Burton, Isaac Asimov, Martin Sheen, Jean Houston, Deepak Chopra, eight Nobel Prize laureates, and Prime Minister Nehru who told Garry “this is the passport Gandhi would have carried.”
WSA reports that it has issued almost 5 million World Documents since 1954, including World Passports, Birth Certificates, ID Cards, World Citizen Certificates, Marriage Certificates, Political Asylum Cards, and other human right documents -- all mandated by clauses in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR).
UDHR Article 6: “Everyone has the right to recognition everywhere as a person before the law.”
UDHR Article 13.2: “Everyone has the right to leave any country, including his own, and to return to his country.”
Over six decades, border guards, immigration officers, consulates, and embassies from 95% of all nations have placed entry, exit, and visa stamps in the World Passport.
However since 9/11 it has become much more difficult to travel with it. People have even been detained for using it.
In the full 83 minute theatrical version of our film, David Gallup shows the example of Mos Def (aka yasiin bey) who was detained by South Africa for trying to use it to travel. vimeo.com/ondemand/theworldismycountry
David Gallup, who is WSA's President and Chief Attorney, warns:
"When you carry the world passport… It is possible that your rights could be violated. You could be harassed; you could be detained. Even your passport could be confiscated. That is why the World Service Authority has a Legal Advocacy Department that will review your report of those violations and demand redress on your behalf."
“Before 9/11 I travelled on my World Passport numerous times” says our film’s director Arthur Kanegis. When I traveled to Venezuela in the 1990’s they had an official “Mundo” button on their passport machine for the World Passport. However it is much more difficult in today's era. So I present my US passport first, have them stamp it so I won’t be hassled, then ask them to please consider also stamping my world passport. Some do, some refuse, and one even asked “Where can I get one of those?”
While that’s an option for those who have national passports, what about the multitude of undocumented refugees and stateless people? For them, the world passport may be their only way to establish their identity. Despite frequent rejections at borders, thousands of stateless people have succeeded in using it to gain their freedom, their dignity and even to save their lives.
“People ask me, Does the World Passport work? I tell them no. It’s a tool for claiming your human rights. It doesn't work, you work the tool.” -- Garry Davis
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THE WORLD PASSPORT IS A TOOL
Many have also used it as an identity document to rent housing, open bank accounts, or enter courthouses to have their asylum cases heard. For more information scroll down to the videos below. See: A Human Rights Tool
Other Reasons People Obtain a World Passport:
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Helping others. Your service fees help provide free passports to desperate refugees who’ve lost everything and need it badly as their only ID.
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Educating. Garry Davis created the world passport as an educational tool to help people raise their thinking above the nations that divide us.
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Identity. By obtaining a World Passport, many people feel they step into a new identity, transcending the nations that divide us. They gain a new sense of empowerment – and a place to stand to build the systems and institutions required to advance human and environmental rights on a global scale. Identifying oneself as a world citizen can be the first step to building an environmentally-sustainable, just and peaceful world.
If you are interested in obtaining a World Passport go to: worldcitizengov.org/apply
Note: The World Service Authority is a separate organization, unaffiliated with Future Wave or The World Is My Country. While Garry Davis and the WSA are shown in the movie The World Is My Country, they had no control over making, producing or determining the content of our documentary.
David Gallup is president of The World Service Authority (WSA) founded by Garry Davis.