Equality Now Press Release

New York State Attorney General Eliot Spitzer Obtains Temporary Restraining Order Against Big Apple Oriental Tours
Seven-Year Campaign by Equality Now Leads to Unprecedented Legal Action Against Sex Tourism Industry

New York, August 20, 2003--Equality Now welcomes the first effective legal response to its seven-year campaign to close New York-based sex tour company, Big Apple Oriental Tours. The issuance of a temporary restraining order that severely restricts the company’s ability to conduct business is a significant first step taken by New York law enforcement agencies against sex tourism.

In 1996, Equality Now launched a Women's Action Campaign calling for the prosecution of US-based sex tourism agencies including Big Apple Oriental Tours, a company that operates sex tours to the Philippines and Thailand. In its brochures, Big Apple Oriental Tours advertises a twelve-day trip to the Philippines for $2,500, which includes transportation, airfare, hotel room and the ability to select a “companion” upon arrival at Angeles City. The brochure further advertises, “you may select a different companion at anytime during your stay.” The company operates its business from the homes of its owner Norman Barabash of Bellerose, NY and his partner Douglas Allen of Poughkeepsie, NY.

Equality Now’s campaign initially urged the Queens District Attorney to take action against Big Apple Oriental Tours. Despite ample evidence showing that the company was promoting prostitution contrary to NY Penal Law Section 230.25 and protests by members of Equality Now’s Women’s Action Network from around the world, it was only after Equality Now brought the issue to the attention of New York State Attorney General Eliot Spitzer in 2002, with support from Gloria Steinem, Rep. Carolyn Maloney and the New York Women's Agenda, a coalition of which Equality Now is a member, that a thorough official investigation was launched. Attorney General Eliot Spitzer's office examined the case and obtained a temporary restraining order on July 29, 2003, pursuant to New York State Executive Law §63.12, which gives the Attorney General the authority to restrict the operation of an illegal business. As a result of the temporary restraining order, the Big Apple Oriental Tours website has been disabled and the company is severely restricted from organizing or advertising any future tours.

Business Week has estimated that Big Apple Oriental Tours is one of 25 sex tour companies in the US. Some others include G&F tours in Louisiana and Video Travel in Hawaii. Equality Now’s campaign, together with the efforts of the Attorney General’s office to shut down Big Apple Oriental Tours, sends a clear message to other sex tour companies that promoting prostitution can and will be stopped.

Welcoming the breakthrough, Taina Bien-Aimé, Executive Director of Equality Now, explained, “sex tourism contributes to the demand for trafficking of women and it is a human rights violation. Shutting down Big Apple Oriental Tours, the first case of its kind in the country, will bring us closer to recognizing the illegal activities of sex tour companies and their severe impact on promoting violence and discrimination against women around the world.”

Equality Now is an international human rights organization that works to protect and promote the civil, political, economic and social rights of girls and women. Issues of concern to Equality Now include rape, domestic violence, female genital mutilation, denial of reproductive rights, sex trafficking and other forms of violence and discrimination against women. Equality Now’s Women’s Action Network comprises 25,000 groups and individual members in over 160 countries. For more information please refer to Women's Action 12.1 on sex tourism.

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