Independent Diplomat is guided by an advisory council of experienced former and serving diplomats, international lawyers and leaders of human rights organisations:

Gareth Evans

President Emeritus of International Crisis Group; Chancellor of the Australian National University; Honorary Professorial Fellow at the University of Melbourne; Co-Chair of the International Commission on Nuclear Non-Proliferation and Disarmament; author of The Responsibility to Protect: Ending Mass Atrocity Crimes Once and For All (Brookings, 2008) and former Foreign Minister of Australia (1988-96).

Thomas R. Pickering

Vice Chairman of Hills & Company; former Senior Vice President, International Relations of Boeing Company; former U.S. Under Secretary of State for Political Affairs; former US Ambassador to the Russian Federation, India, Israel, El Salvador, Nigeria, Jordan and the United Nations; former Assistant Secretary of State for Oceans and International Environmental and Scientific Affairs and Chairman of the American Academy of Diplomacy.

Marjatta Rasi

Former Finnish Ambassador to India, Sri Lanka, Bangladesh, Nepal, Bhutan (1991-95); Director General of the Department of International Development Cooperation within the Finnish MFA (1995-1998); former Finnish Permanent Representative to the UN in New York (1998-2005); former Member of the Board of the International Peace Academy (2000-2002); Vice President of ECOSOC (2002-2003); And Chairman of ECOSOC (2004-2005); Under Secretary of State for Development Policy at the Finnish MFA (2005-2009); Ambassador to Austria and Permanent Representative to UN organizations in Vienna until 2013.

Danilo Türk

Former Slovenian Permanent Representative to the United Nations, former Assistant Secretary-General of the UN Department of Political Affairs , President of Slovenia from December 2007 until December 2012.