About the Committee
The Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs was established in 1991 by the General Assembly Charter and its headquarters are located in New York, USA and Geneva, Switzerland. It was created to improve the UN’s response to the complex emergencies like assisting people when it is needed or providing resources in crisis situations and also for aiding in natural disasters around the world
(substituting the UN Coordination for Natural Disasters). Because it is a historical committee, OCHA did not exist so delegates will have to develop an alternative solution using UN/diplomatic methods.
Topic Background
Torreon is a city located in the state of Coahuila in the north of Mexico. In 1911,
Mexico was suffering a Civil War that started in November 1910 against the dictator
Porfirio Díaz, who was the authority since 1876. Northern Mexico battles were essential for the revolution because Francisco I. Madero’s followers called
Maderistas tried to end Porfirio’s Government. On January of 1911 Porfirio is taken to France and Madero becomes president. Since then, Francisco Villa and Emiliano
Zapata were fighting against Madero for justice and fair distribution of land.
In Torreon a Chinese community had established with 600 citizens approximately, most of them storekeepers and peasants. Since earlier times racism was notorious as well as xenophobia, the fear of people from other countries. Madero was a xenophobic person with ideas of superiority and believed other races were inferior.
He had an idea that the blending of races was the not an ideal image for the country and that the “yellow ethnicity” was degenerative. Laws against the Asian people even existed (Chinese and Japanese especially).
On the evening of May 13th, about 2, 000 soldiers loyal to Madero started to march into Torreon, people responded with fire, killing lots of soldiers from the top of their houses and stores. The confrontation took a pair of days with lows from both bands until the morning of the 15 th ; troops entered into the city and started to call out for revenge against the “yellow ethnicity”. They took their food, their goods and houses.
The Chinese government heard about it and wrote an article on the Pekin Daily
News responding: “In the Mexican Revolution, there are the most arbitrary killings and looting. Yesterday in Torreon more than 300 Chinese citizens were killed amidst very regrettable circumstances.” The emperor of those times Pu YI, sent a list of demands asking the Mexican government for condolences and to compensate for the damages to the survivors and Chinese government about of three million
Mexican pesos.

Individual Perspectives
United States
Since the beginning United States has been a leader for countries in the economy and armory thanks to their fight of equality and justice, but at the same time discrimination towards other ethnicities has taken place. Like the massacre of Torreon United States has also been in a massacre. On February
25 th , 1911 the last massacre also known as The Battle of Kelley Creek, happened because of racism against Native Americans, similar to Torreon.
China
China is the country with most loyal people in the world that would sacrifice themselves to protect their ideologies. Throughout the years, China has shown the power of its army and has invaded many territories to impose their government. A clear example is the Chinese invasion in Tibet in 1910.
Mexico
Mexico has a beautiful culture and things that are incomparable to other countries, but unfortunately Mexico hasn´t had good leaders in the past. For that reason the Torreon Massacre happened, but it did not only occur because of its leaders it happened because of the xenophobia and racism that Mexico experienced during that period.
Ottoman Empire
Throughout the Ottoman Empire history it had used violence to suppress and dominate different ideologies, an example was when they imposed their ideology towards the Christians and massacred more than 20,000 in Persia during the Assyrian Genocide. That Genocide was the result of the Hamidian massacres (past massacres), when the people of the empire killed more than
250,000 people and the ottomans fought against the Armenians.
Nippon Empire (Japan)
A characteristic thing of this country is religion. The same as China, Japan has too many loyal people that would give their lives for the dynasty’s emperor. Japan can be a very peaceful country, but also could also unite with great fury if necessary. Contrary to what happened in Torreon, Japan could find a peaceful way to solve these kind of problems without taking acts of violence.

Germany
Germany is a great power and currently it is a global leader in several industrial and technological sectors. In 1945 Germany with Hitler massacred the Jews because of his hate he made the worst massacre in History. It´s the same as Torreon, it happened because he wanted everyone to be the same.
Committee Focus and Points to Consider
In this committee the protection of the people is the first thing to cover and also to try to solve the problems that are presented. Racism and xenophobia are two factors that fuel armed conflicts. How Chinese people were treated was not fair, therefore in this committee we must strive to answer the question: What would have happened if OCHA had existed? Would the nations of UN create a diplomatic solution? How would OCHA support in ending a series of events against the Chinese and Japanese people throughout the next 10 years in Mexico? How can the UN abolish racist and xenophobic laws that restricted the rights of Asian people during those days? Consider legal and political aspects of the time period. Chinese people and other ethnic groups suffering from the same situation should be the point of focus for this committee.
Delegates, you must not forget that this debate is happening during 1911 so there wasn’t a lot of technology like the internet and commercial airplanes. The communication between countries those days was harder. Maybe the Torreon massacre could not have been stopped, but the events after that, yes. There were many empires that were too powerful, the conflicts between them triggered World
War I and many territorial conflicts, be careful and wise.
Delegations
1.- Ottoman Empire 11.-Rwanda
2.- Cambodia 12.- Britain

3.- Haiti 13.- Anglo-Egyptian Sudan
4.- Dominican Republic 14.-Russia
5.- Burma 15.-German South West Africa
10.- Japan
6.- Armenia 16.- Austrian-Hungary
7.- France 17.-Greece
8.- Mexico 18.-China
19.- United States 9.- Germany
20.-Australia
21.- Serbia

Key Terminology
Xenophobia – an unreasonable fear or hatred of foreigners or strangers or that which is foreign or strange.
Massacre – a general slaughter, as of persons or animals.
Abolish – to do away with; put an end to.
Diplomatic – Skilled in dealing with sensitive matters or people; tactful.
Racism – a belief or doctrine that inherent differences among the various human racial groups determine cultural or individual achievement, usually involving the idea that one’s own race is superior and has the right to dominate others or that particular racial group is inferior to the others.
Revolution/Civil War – an overthrow or repudiation and the thorough replacement of an established government or political system by the people governed.
Yellow Ethnicity – It’s the color people most often associate with Asian people, particularly the Chinese.
Maderistas – Supporters of Madero
Sources https://globalvoices.org/2015/05/29/the-forgotten-massacre-of-chinese-people-in-torreon-mexico/# https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_Nations_Office_for_the_Coordination_of_Humnitarian_Affairs http://www.unocha.org/ http://www.jstor.org/stable/40168453?seq=1#page_scan_tab_contents https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Germany https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_Kingdom https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/France https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/China http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/revolution?s=t