Why These Issues Matter: Opinions of the Secretaries General
Written by: Isla Dupuis and Shriya Menon
ILYMUN: A Platform For Future Leaders
International Lyon Model United Nations (ILYMUN) is an event where the voices of the future generation are united to discuss relevant global issues and challenge their potential to engage in meaningful discussions and critical thinking opportunities. The Secretaries General (SGs) play a vital role in ILYMUN and in 2025 the team of SGs are Eva ZENONE, Rafael DE LUCCA, Yann LEBLOND, Sukhada JOSHI, Kasia RICE and Philip BAVOUX. The SGs in ILYMUN lead the entire conference, overseeing logistics, public relations and choosing the conference’s theme, as they set the agenda, represent the event and ensure smooth coordination. Every year for ILYMUN, the Secretaries General choose global concerns that are pertinent to the present and future. The overall focus of the conference this year is to encourage conversations that examine international politics as they underscore the essence of “Democracy and Security in a World of Conflict”.
Addressing Global Challenges: Democracy and Security in Focus
Democracy and security in a world of conflict is an issue that is persistent in society today as people contemplate their rights and overall impact on their political state. Only a handful of people live in democracy, and governments are constantly being threatened: wars and internal political tensions are weakening democratic standards on all continents. Human rights are being eradicated in certain parts of the world thereby leading to the topic of discussion this year. Kasia RICE, a SG from the International School of Lyon, expresses that “With a plague of governmental instability infecting our world and with basic human rights and security being disregarded, we believe that our conference theme is very fitting to the many issues sparking worldwide.” (RICE, 2025) Considering the aspects of society today, the Secretaries Generals of ILYMUN took into careful consideration of each issue that is relevant in all communities. Our SG Kasia states, “As for the individual committees, we chose a variety. From UN Women to the Historical Security Council, our committees cover a wide range of issues and topics.”
Structure of the Conference
Furthermore, as the SGs grapple with the fundamentals of government, safety and conflict, the office of the United Nations high commissioner for human rights (OHCHR) has been chosen as the largest committee as the debates will be closely related to this year's theme. INTERPOL is being introduced for the first time during the 2025 ILYMUN conference, although INTERPOL is not a UN body, our SGs decided it would be an interesting addition to the event this year since it is such a prominent organisation in the world as it deals with every aspect of government security and world conflict. Additionally, INTERPOL’s headquarters are located in Lyon, France making it an even more of a reason to add it to ILYMUN.
The structure of the conference takes hard work to perfect as the SGs have outlined the challenges they had to face while organising the event. Kasia RICE states, “We are all high school students, we all have other deadlines to meet. Two schools organise ILYMUN, so we are always working by message, transmitting information by WhatsApp over and over. Misunderstandings are common, and deadlines are constantly shifting around differing events.”(RICE, 2025) Sukhada JOSHI also mentions, “One of the biggest challenges so far has been finding time for all the SGs to meet in person. With everyone balancing busy schedules, it’s been tricky to coordinate, but we’ve managed to make it work through a lot of planning and flexibility.” (JOSHI, 2025) Overall, challenges like these are ultimately inevitable, however the SG’s consistently work hard to put their best foot forward in having a successful and organised conference.
Purpose of Topics Chosen
Sukhada JOSHI states that “This topic encourages discussions on protecting human rights, ensuring stability, and finding solutions to build lasting peace in an increasingly complex world.”(JOSHI, 2025) Kasia RICE states that “Every committee at ILYMUN is important, as every single aspect of government and security are key to solving the world's issues. I am very happy with our choices, I think they offer a range of debating topics that should produce some incredible resolutions.”(RICE, 2025) Yann states that he “hopes the discussions and debates will encourage people to get more involved in politics to change the world for the better.”(LEBLOND, 2025) Democracy and security in a world of conflict can be a sensitive topic as the participants of ILYMUN might have different opinions and perspectives on these real world issues; hence, choosing such a topic would lead to the engagement of the delegates in critical thinking and allow them to reflect and be informed on situations that our world is facing today. Hopefully, after this conference, the attendees will come out to be more knowledgeable, open minded and analytical when they are faced with these issues in the future.
