Laissez-passer issued to International Civil Servants of the United Nations
A laissez-passer (from the French let pass) is a travel document issued by a national government or an international treaty organization. When issued by a national government a laissez-passer is often for one-way travel to the issuing country. When issued by an international treaty organization it is often for employee travel on official business.
Some national governments issue laissez-passers to their own nationals as emergency passports. Others issue them to people who are stateless, who are unable to obtain a passport from their own government or whose government is not recognized by the issuing country.
The United Nations and its agencies issue laissez-passer to officials and members of their families for official use. The U.N. laissez-passer is similar to a passport, and is widely recognized worldwide, although some countries will not accept a U.N. laissez-passer as sufficient to gain entry. A U.N. laissez-passer does not generally confer diplomatic immunity, but may confer limited immunities and privileges.
Historically, laissez-passer were commonly issued during wartime and at other periods, literally acting as a pass to allow travel to specific areas, out of war zones or out of the country for various officials, diplomatic agents, or representatives or citizens of third countries. In these contexts, laissez-passer would frequently include quite specific and limited freedom of movement. The form and issuing authority would be more or less standardized depending on the circumstances.
The seal of the 8th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals 
The 8th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals has ruled that the Department of Homeland Security was wrong in using the online encyclopedia ''Wikipedia'' as a reference when deciding whether to allow asylum seekers to stay in the United States.

The department used the ''Wikipedia'' article named laissez-passer to decide whether the document was a valid form of identification. This is despite the fact that the article had a large orange notice at the top of the article saying that "this article does not cite any references or sources."
Wikipedia logo 
The Board of Immigration Appeals has stated that it doesn't "encourage the use of resources such as Wikipedia.com sic in reaching pivotal decisions in immigration proceedings." They said that they allowed the decision to stand due to the fact that the information seemed accurate.

The appeals court noted when making the decision that Wikipedia admits that articles will stay inaccurate and unbalanced for long periods of time. Below is the extract from the court documents that makes this point:


Cary Bass, the volunteer coordinator of the Wikimedia Foundation, gave Wikinews the following statement on this issue: