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Brief Profile

Cllr. Tiawan Saye Gongloe was born in Glehyee, Nimba County.

 He holds a Certificate in human rights advocacy from the Human Rights Center, Columbia University, City of New York in 1990.

He also holds an LL.B in General Law from the Louis Arthur Grimes School of Law, University of Liberia in 1988;

He earlier earned a B.Sc. in Economics from the University of Liberia in 1981

He’s Fluent in English, Mah, Dan and speaks a little bit of French and Amharic (an Ethiopian National Language).

He is a career lawyer and human rights advocate. He is the immediate past president of the Liberian National Bar Association and served from 2019-2021, he holds a life membership of the governing Board of the African Bar Association, a member of the Public Interest Lawyers Association of West Africa. He is an Assistant Professor of Law at the Louis Arthur School of Law, University of Liberia and instructor at the James A. A. Pierre Judicial Institute.

Cllr. Gongloe was admitted to the Montserrado County Bar Association in 1988 as Attorney-at-Law and later admitted to the Supreme Court Bar as Counsellor-at-Law in 1994. He was elected three times as a member of the National Executive Council of the LNBA prior to his election as President of the LNBA in 2018. Between the periods 1997-2000, he served as a member of the Grievance and Ethics Committee of the Supreme Court of Liberia.

He is the Managing Partner at the Gongloe and Associates Law Firm. He has represented many journalists who were illegally arrested and detained by the government or held in contempt by courts.  Some of those he has represented include Pro-democracy, media, and human rights NGOs; the Center for Democratic Empowerment, the Catholic Justice and Peace Commission, and the Press Union of Liberia just to name a few.

Also, in 1994, he served as a member of the United Nations Observer Mission in South Africa (UNOMSA).

Cllr. Gongloe, by special order was commissioned Full Colonel in the Armed Forces of Liberia and appointed Trial Counsel by the Liberia National Transitional Government headed by Cllr. David Kpomakpor where successfully prosecuted General Charles Julu and other soldiers for attempting to overthrow the Transitional Government.

He served as Solicitor General, Republic of Liberia from 2006-2009; where, for the first time in the history of Liberia, he prosecuted Mr. Gyude Bryant, a former head of state and sitting members of the Liberian Senate. He also served as Minister of Labor from 2009 to 2010 when he resigned from his position over policy disagreement with the government.

He has published many articles including “Impunity is a threat to Freedom-an-op-ed” co-authored with General Romeo Dalliare, Former Commander of the UN Peacekeeping troops in Rwanda.

His public appearances and speeches include serving as a panellist in 2004 “War Crimes in West Africa: Will There Be Justice?”, organized by the World Policy Institute, the New School University, New York, USA. He has spoken at many universities in the United States on the human rights situation in Liberia, including but not limited to: Columbia University in New York, UCLA, University of Southern California, Stanford University, Fordham Law School, Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy, and Tuft University, Cambridge. Massachusetts, U.S.A.

He was a presidential candidate in the just-ended 2023 Presidential elections in Liberia where he came in 6^th place among 20 candidates.

He believes in the equality of all human beings, the supremacy of the law and the philosophy of the Chinese philosopher, Confucious, “ Do onto others that which you wish to be done to you by others” His common saying is, “ I rather be a proud and loved as a poor man than be troubled-hearted and despised as rich man”. He has also maintained that there is no risk too big for him to take for Liberia.