Members attended the annual Tyneside Geographical Society Lecture ‘Citizenship and Equality’ where Vera Baird QC, Police and Crime Commissioner for Northumbria and Kaneez Shaid, Chair of Trustees, Citizens UK were programmed to have a dialogue. This conversation between two prominent figures in community politics was aiming to provide insights into community alliances aimed at creating a sense of fairness and a platform for empowering marginalised voices. Unfortunately Kaneez Shaid was let down by public transport, however fortunately her replacement by local, Sarah Bryson, of Citizen’s UK, Tyne & Wear, at the last minute was extremely well received and enjoyable. The speakers explored identities of citizenship and equality that are forged in the public spaces of civil society – locally, nationally and in a broader ethic of care for human rights.
Dame Vera Baird gave a short description of her interesting and varied career journey up until the present day. Since 2015 she has been involved in the following:
“Seeing is Believing” – Dame Vera Baird QC launches a new report on Northumbria’s unique Court Observers scheme.
A new report from Northumbria Police and Crime Commissioner Vera Baird DBE QC highlights how even small changes to court processes based on the observations of a unique scheme of Court Observers could help improve the rape conviction rate.
The 12 observers, local members of the public, watched on a rota basis 30 rape trials at Newcastle Crown Court between January 2015 and June 2016.
The report “Seeing is Believing” was published on Monday 20th February. As a result of the observations changes have already been made by the Judiciary and the CPS to local working practices.
Sarah Bryson, Tyne & Wear’s Citizens Adviser, emphasised how essential to its success is engaging the public as much as possible in local issues. Currently they are working towards building a broad alliance of society members across the North East with an ambitious plan to train community leaders to carry our a ‘ listening campaign’ during 2017.The prioritised issues will be discussed at the scheduled assembly on September 2017. The founding assembly of Tyne & Wear Citizens will be in November 2017.
