[ssully]

They are relevant due to the "people" aspects of projects, as in, the collaborative aspects of the project. I am guessing you are pulling that line from the code of conduct portion of this post. They specifically mention having a committee of several people from different backgrounds so that the can better assess potential breaches in the code of conduct.

As for if this is a regular topic of discussion besides the code, that obviously varies wildly, but I believe it's being discussed more these days.