SIMUN SAYS

SIMUN Secretariat's welcome message!

Honorable delegates, esteemed chairs, and most honourable guests,

Welcome to SIMUN XXI. 

These next three days will be filled with debate and conversation of a wide range of topics linking back to our conference’s central theme, Global Security in the 21st Century: Strengthening Peace, Justice and Stability. Whatever your stance, or your delegation’s stance, you will embody the spirit of the UN: international communication and cooperation. 

For all the issues, the problems, the complications and the setbacks we have seen when preparing for this conference, we could not be happier that, today, our work has come to fruition. Anyone who has consulted the news recently will have gained, in addition to a dark feeling of wretched despondency, a realisation that all of the concepts we mention in our theme are under attack. Our era of peace is seeing too many wars to remain an “era of peace”; both national and international justice lack the tools to bring good intentions to fruition when there are good intentions. No country can be fully confident in the future of collective security, what with the increasing amount of extremism and political violence, even among countries that are supposedly the heralds of peace and democracy. It is the reason why we chose this theme. 

MUN is about teaching students to fix the problems we are facing today, even if their actions will not have a direct consequence on the global landscape. It aims to teach young minds that there is a solution, that that initial feeling of hopelessness is not the truth, and to kindle passion and motivation for diplomacy. This conference would not have survived this far if it were not for the sheer force of will of certain people, born from a love for MUN which has endured many years. We, of course, do not delude ourselves into thinking that every minute of this conference will be spent finding efficient, realistic and peaceful solutions to the problems posed; in fact, we hope that there will be whimsy and joy found in exaggerated and simplified propositions from the delegates. We may be looking towards the future, but we are still students, appreciating a time in our life that will soon flit away. 

This endeavor was not the product of a single person’s work. We would like to give special thanks to Ava Cherel-Gross, Charlotte Coll, Aliénor Bergugnat, Maxton Shenoy, Lac Nghi Nguyen, Lucia Legrand and Megan Roca, for all their hard work as our Executive team, and specifically to Megan Roca for her work as the Head of the PressCorps, and Alienor Bergugnat, for her work as Head of the Admins.

In addition, we are very grateful to the members of the PressCorps Etienne Pougnard, Selma Nieto-Dembri, Anya Leroy, and Lola Butler, for their invaluable effort reporting on the next three days of this conference, without which our conference wouldn’t be complete. 

Ms. Leena Sharma, the IFS MUN Director, who has provided us with indispensable help over the last six months, and the school staff and administration, who allow us to host this conference, are also deserving of immense gratitude for all their hard work. 

Finally, we wish to thank all delegates and chairs for your participation in SIMUN; we hope that the next three days are a wondrous experience for all those involved, one you will remember for the rest of your life. 

Hanaé Reverre, Deputy Secretary-General, on behalf of the SIMUN XXI Secretariat