AP Explains: Just what is that 'world passport' Mos Def had?

(AP) — Mos Def's arrest in South Africa shined a light on the world passport, a document invented by a Vermont man in the aftermath of World War II.

The authority promotes the concept world citizenship, the idea that a person should find community in all people of the planet as opposed to within a nation state.

In 1948, Garry Davis, a former Broadway actor and a former World War II bomber pilot, renounced his U.S. citizenship and declared himself a "citizen of the world."

World passports were created in the 1950s by Davis as a way of giving stateless people and refugees access to identification that could be used to cross international boundaries.

The World Service Authority website lists 183 countries that the organization claims have recognized the passports by stamping a visa or exit or entry stamp in them.