Press Statement
NATIONAL ASSOCIATION OF SOCIAL WORKERS OF LIBERIA (NASOWL)
STATEMENT ON THE PROTECTION OF CHILDREN’S PRIVACY & CONFIDENTIALITY INFORMATION
Monday, September 14, 2026- The National Association of Social Workers of Liberia (NASOWL) is deeply concerned by the reported public disclosure of personal information concerning at-risk children by a government official in the course of making or defending a political point
NASOWL is unequivocally clear and remains forever committed to defending children and other at-risk populations in Liberia. Children must never become political ammunition or pawns.
Whatever the political objective, disagreement, accusation, or controversy may be, the privacy, dignity, safety, and confidentiality of children, particularly vulnerable children, must remain beyond political expediency. Personal information obtained through public office or privileged position, government institutions, child-protection systems, schools, health services, or social services is not political property to be publicly released at will to score a political point.
Liberia’s Children’s Law of 2011 already recognizes children’s rights to privacy and confidentiality, including safeguards concerning the disclosure of children’s personal information. Liberia is also bound by international child-rights and disability-rights obligations that reinforce these protections.
NASOWL therefore calls upon the Government of Liberia to strengthen and enforce this protection through comprehensive privacy and data-protection legislation, including robust safeguards for children’s records, health information, educational records, disability-related information, social-work and case-management records, and other sensitive information concerning vulnerable persons in Liberia.
Liberia should develop protections comparable in principle to the safeguards found in the United States’ HIPAA, FERPA and IDEA, while drawing on the Convention on the Rights of the Child and Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities, particularly their protections for children’s privacy, dignity, and personal information. The UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (CRPD) specifically requires protection of the privacy of personal, health, and rehabilitation information of persons with disabilities.
No government official, political actor, public institution, professional, or private individual should be permitted to expose a child’s protected personal information merely to win an argument, embarrass an opponent, defend a political position, or score a public-relations victory.
NASOWL reminds everyone that political battles come and go. But a child’s dignity, safety, and future cannot be recovered once compromised.
NASOWL, therefore, calls for clearer legal prohibitions, meaningful sanctions, institutional accountability, professional safeguards, and a culture of privacy and confidentiality in the handling of information concerning children and other vulnerable populations in Liberia.
Children, NASOWL further reminds the public, have rights. Vulnerability is not consent. Being in privileged public offices is not a carte blanche, nor is it a license to disclose private and confidential information at will. Political disagreement or contest is not a defense for any disclosure.
NASOWL will continue to stand firmly for the dignity, privacy, confidentiality, protection, and best interests of every child and every vulnerable person in Liberia.
NASOWL Motto:
Improving Social Service Delivery Through Professional Practice
Signed,
Dr. J. Kerkula Foeday
PRESIDENT, NASOWL