What is a 'World Passport', why does Mos Def have one, and how do I get mine?

American musician, actor and artist most commonly known as Mos Def was arrested this week in South Africa on charges of using a fake passport, after his U.S. passport expired while he and his family were living abroad for several years. Def, born Dante Terrell Smith Bey, but now going by the name Yasiin Bey, was ordered to leave the country by the end of January or face charges of using a false identity for using an unrecognized travel document known as a "world passport," and helping his family stay in the country illegally.

The allegations are serious, but Bey dismisses their merit. He says that South Africa has accepted world passports as valid ID in the past, and that he has used it for years. In an audio statement released as a full takeover of Kanye West's website, Bey explains:

"They are making false claims against me, a world passport is not a fictitious document. It's been accepted here in South Africa on numerous occasions...as early as 1996 and as late as 2013."

But what exactly is a world passport? The brainchild of now deceased Vermont resident Garry Davis, the document traces its roots back to 1948, when Davis, fresh home from war, relinquished his U.S. citizenship at the American Embassy in Paris. The now-undocumented Davis then created the International Citizen Card and The International Registry of World Citizens, an organization meant to mint and distribute the new form of international ID.

Declaring himself to be a citizen of the world, Davis spent much of his life distributing International Citizen Cards, and later, the world passport. Davis saw his small, 30-page book as a potential means of identifying refugees from war-torn nations who find themselves far from the organizations that would otherwise provide passports, documentation and support, but also as a more philosophical solution to the cultural and national borders and bureaucracy that divide us as humans. Invoking 30 articles of the 1948 Universal Declaration of Human Rights as the global law empowering the world passport, the organization distributing the booklets claims:

"The World Passport represents the inalienable human right of freedom of travel on planet Earth. Therefore it is premised on the fundamental oneness or unity of the human community."

His career spent issuing IDs that many would argue are fraudulent earned David multiple arrests, but eventually he secured a global office in the form of the World Service Authority in Washington, D.C.

So do you need a world passport? Probably not. As the international incident currently unfolding surrounding Bey's citizenship, identity and legal status indicate, the world passport is hardly a universally recognized document. Still, whether it be from a desire to stick it to the man or just plain curiosity, you can apply for the document yourself at the World Government of World Citizens' website.