The importance of the International Advisory Council (IAC)

Doudou Diène has had a distinguished career in the United Nations, including being the U. N. Special Rapporteur on contemporary forms of racism, racial discrimination, xenophobia and related intolerance, and Chairman of the UN Independent Commission of Inquiry on Burundi.

He was also a member of two International Advisory Councils of the Auroville Foundation between 2004 – 2013. 

Recently, Frederick spoke to him in UNESCO Headquarters in Paris about what Auroville means to him, as well as his concerns about the failure of the authorities to appoint a new International Advisory Council. Here are some extracts from the interview.

“I am very profoundly an Aurovilian by heart, because you cannot experience Auroville without being profoundly marked in your consciousness, your feelings, your ethic. All of us have who have experienced Auroville over the years have been profoundly marked by what we experienced in meeting the Aurovilians, their motivation and the vibration emanating from then. They are the central actors, building a city and practicing living together. All this is unique and remains with me very profoundly.     

However, as a member of the International Advisory Council (IAC) for six years, I am concerned by the fact that today the three ‘legs’ of Auroville – The Governing Board, the International Advisory Council and the  Residents Assembly – are not as strong as they should be. 

What I regret very much, very profoundly, is that apparently the IAC has been marginalized and now is not even being renewed.  I think this is a very big mistake for several reasons. 

Firstly, Auroville is a world city, Auroville belongs to the world, so it is important that one of the mechanisms, the IAC, be composed of people coming from outside India, so that not only they bring their experience to the Aurovilians but they also help Auroville be connected and to share its experience with the rest of the world. 

The second important factor is that the mandate of the IAC obliges the members to advise the Aurovilians and the Governing Board in the spirit of the Auroville Charter. But how do they advise? First, as a priority, they have to listen very carefully, very profoundly, to the Aurovilians because they don’t know Auroville. They have to learn what Auroville is and what is going on, because Auroville is something in the making. So it is important to understand the dynamic as well as the problems the Aurovilians are facing. 

In my first IAC we tried to do this.  But during my second term, all the separate meetings the IAC had had in the past with the Governing Board and Aurovilians to reflect and give advice ceased because it was decided that Governing Board and the IAC would only be meeting the Aurovilians together. So there was no longer this very important factor of separation of judgment, of reflection, which gave credibility to the IAC when they reported and advised the Aurovilians and the Governing Board.

So I think it is highly important and urgent that the Aurovilians remind the Indian authorities that they attach the greatest importance to the IAC. This is absolutely vital because the lack of this institution destabilizes in a way the initial message of the founders of Auroville.”

Edited by Alan