Former Minister of Gender, Children and Social Protection, Williametta Edouarda Saydee-Tarr, has issued a statement describing the public disclosure of personal information belonging to vulnerable Liberian children by the Managing Director of the Liberia Water and Sewer Corporation, Mo Ali, as deeply troubling, one that demands an immediate investigation and accountability.
In a statement issued on Sunday, Saydee-Tarr referenced a Facebook post made by Mr. Ali on Friday, September 11, 2026, in which he stated, “We will even publish names of kids we have taken from the streets and schools they are in.” According to the former minister, the statement was accompanied by images of documents containing what appears to be children’s names, ages, classes, schools, caregivers, telephone numbers and addresses. She stressed that such action was not transparency but a serious child-protection concern.
Saydee-Tarr said one question that must immediately be answered is how these records came into the possession of the Managing Director of LWSC and who authorized him to disclose them publicly. She noted that if it is established that the information originated from the Ministry of Gender, Children and Social Protection, then Minister Gbeme Horace-Kollie has a serious institutional responsibility to explain how confidential information concerning vulnerable children could leave the custody of the Ministry and become material for public and political Facebook commentary.
The Ministry, she emphasized, cannot protect children by exposing them. She described the concern as even more troubling given that in October 2024, the MGCSP itself publicly posted a photograph of Minister Horace-Kollie sitting with an underage sex worker from Kakata who was identified as a beneficiary or victim on the Ministry’s Facebook platform. Saydee-Tarr said the issue is not whether the Minister intended harm, but whether the Ministry understands that protecting vulnerable children includes protecting their identities, images and personal circumstances from unnecessary public exposure. She added that a child who comes under the care or protection of the Government does not surrender his or her right to privacy, and that government custody is not public ownership.
Citing the legal framework, the former minister pointed to the Children’s Law of Liberia of 2011, Section 18.1, which states that every child shall have a right to have her or his privacy protected and that the protection of this right shall extend to publicity which places the child in a false light in the public eye. She noted that the law in its totality places the best interests of the child at the center of actions affecting children and establishes a broad obligation to protect children from abuse, exploitation and harm. She further cited Article 16 of the Liberian Constitution which provides that no person shall be subjected to interference with his privacy of person, family, home or correspondence except by order of a court. She added that Liberia’s own Ministry of Justice acknowledges that the law requires government institutions to take children’s age and vulnerabilities into account and strive to protect and reintegrate them. She also referenced the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child, Article 16, which states that no child shall be subjected to arbitrary or unlawful interference with his or her privacy, family, home or correspondence, nor to unlawful attacks on his or her honour and reputation.
Saydee-Tarr questioned what could possibly be in the best interest of a vulnerable child in having their name, school, caregiver and personal information displayed on Facebook. She said clearly it is not, as Liberia has already recognized the need to shield victims and survivors. She explained that Liberia’s legal framework surrounding sexual offenses recognizes the particular vulnerability of victims and that Criminal Court “E” proceedings for rape may be conducted in camera, with authority to seal the names and addresses of rape survivors and provide protective measures for child victims and survivors. That principle, she said, exists for a reason, which is that victims and survivors must not be subjected to further harm through unnecessary public exposure.
She further pointed to figures released by the MGCSP itself to demonstrate how serious the vulnerability is. According to her, the Ministry reported 3,957 GBV cases in 2024, including 2,759 rape cases, of which 1,485 involved statutory rape of persons under 18. Montserrado County alone accounted for 2,143 reported GBV cases, including 1,902 rape cases. For the first three quarters of 2025, the Ministry reported 1,735 rape cases, representing approximately 56 percent of reported GBV cases. She stressed that these are not merely statistics, that every number represents a person, and where that person is a child, the State’s obligation to protect is even greater.
Saydee-Tarr said Minister Horace-Kollie cannot remain silent while information involving children under her Ministry’s protection is publicly displayed. She said the minister must answer who authorized the release of these children’s information, how Mr. Ali obtained the records, whether any parent, guardian or legally authorized representative was informed or asked for consent, what confidentiality safeguards were in place, whether the MGCSP has launched an investigation into the disclosure, and what steps are being taken to protect the affected children from further exposure or harm. She stated that if the information did not come from the MGCSP, then the Ministry should say so clearly and explain how it intends to protect the children whose identities are now circulating publicly, and if it did come from the Ministry, then the Liberian people deserve to know who authorized the disclosure and why.
The former minister said Mr. Ali’s position as Managing Director of a government corporation does not give him unrestricted authority to publish personal information concerning children and that he owes the public answers. She said his own words are particularly troubling because he did not merely publish information once, but threatened to publish even more. That, she said, should alarm every parent, every child-protection professional and every responsible government official in Liberia. According to Saydee-Tarr, a child rescued from the streets is not a public-relations asset and a government program does not give officials the right to put a child’s identity, school or personal circumstances on social media. She emphasized that this is about the children and not politics, and that she is not asking the Government to hide its achievements, but asking the Government to protect the children it claims to serve.
She called on the MGCSP to investigate the apparent disclosure, on Mr. Ali to explain how he obtained the information and under what authority he published it, and on appropriate oversight and human-rights institutions, especially UNICEF, to determine whether applicable child-protection safeguarding policies, privacy or confidentiality obligations were breached. She noted that the fact that the post may subsequently have been deleted by him does not make the disclosure disappear, as screenshots exist, the information was publicly accessible, and the potential harm to the children remains.
She concluded that children are not content, children are not political ammunition, victims are not statistics, and confidential information is not Facebook material. She also questioned where all the women’s groups and civil society actors are who used to take to the streets with placards screaming “We Are Not Protected,” asking whether the country is now protected. Most importantly, she said, the Government of Liberia must answer one simple question: Who is protecting the children.