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Monrovia — A prominent Swedish based Liberian child rights advocate has strongly condemned the public disclosure of sensitive personal data belonging to vulnerable children, calling for an immediate and independent international investigation.
The social media publication was knowingly, and willfully done by the managing director of the Liberia Water and Sewer Corporation (LWSC), Mo Ali.
The published documents contain highly confidential details, including the names, ages, sex, and schools of vulnerable minors in Liberia – something that has since sparked public concerns and widespread condemnation.
Courage Sundberg, the 2022 Golden Image Award winner for children’s advocacy and CEO of the Liberian Youth Christian Foundation (LYCF), issued a rigorous statement targeting Ali’s social media post – nothing that the official confirmation by the Ministry of Gender, Children and Social Protection raises alarming questions regarding how such sensitive files were acquired, managed, and ultimately broadcast on public social media platforms.
“Having worked with vulnerable children for over 30 years, I find this deeply disturbing, maintaining that children deserve Protection, not exposure,” Sundberg stated. “When children are already vulnerable, our responsibility is to reduce their vulnerability, not increase it by exposing their identities to the public. Providing assistance to a child does not remove that child’s right to privacy, dignity and protection”, she noted.
Highlighting the gravity of the breach, Sundberg has officially called on both UNICEF Liberia and UNICEF’s international headquarters to step in, urging an urgent, independent probe into the data disclosure to ensure accountability and safeguard the affected minors.
As privacy and child-protection advocates rally around the issue, the incident underscores mounting calls for stricter protocols regarding the handling of vulnerable children’s data in Liberia.
