This article may rely excessively on sources too closely associated with the subject, potentially preventing the article from being verifiable and neutral. (August 2019) |
The World Service Authority (WSA), founded in 1953 by Garry Davis,[1] is a non-profit organization that claims to educate about and promote "world citizenship", "world law", and world government. It is best known for selling unofficial fantasy[2][3] documents such as World Passports.
The WSA has an office in Washington, D.C., the United States. The office in Shanghai, China, was closed on 1 January 2010. As of 2017[update], attorney David M. Gallup was the president of the WSA.[4][5]
The WSA was founded by Garry Davis, a former Broadway actor and World War II bomber pilot, who officially gave up his U.S. citizenship in 1948 to live as a "citizen of the world". It was set up to be the administrative agency of the "World Government of World Citizens" which he declared on 4 September 1953.[6] The first office was opened in New York City in 1954.[6] In the past, WSA also had offices in Basel, London and Tokyo.[7][8]
Besides selling World Passports,[9] the WSA registers customers as "world citizens" and sells "world citizen" identity documents, such as fantasy[2][3] birth certificates, identity cards, marriage certificates, political asylum cards, "International Exit Visas" and "International Residence Permits".[10] The organization's legal department is responsible to assist holders of its documents.[11] The organization also promotes programs, such as "Mundialization" – declaring cities and towns as "world territories"; "World Syntegrity Project" – an attempt to create a World Constitution through meetings of citizens; and other programs.[12]
The WSA is also involved in a project to establish a World Court of Human Rights.[13] The WSA has also allegedly sold World Government Postal Stamps,[14] which, according to Garry Davis, helped to convey thousands of letters between China and Taiwan in the early 1980s.[15]
The World Service Authority claims that 189 countries have accepted the World Passport, by stamping a national visa and/or entry/exit stamp.[16] The World Service Authority requests that travelers send photocopies or scans of visa/entry/exit stamps to the Washington, DC office.
The World Service Authority also claims legal recognition of their documents by Burkina Faso, Ecuador, Mauritania, Tanzania and Zambia.[16]