I have been a supporter of Amnesty International since 1970, when a young man at my high school organized an effort to pressure the Soviet Union to allow Russians Jews to leave the country. Suspicious of some of the projects Amnesty has undertaken recently, however, I have grown erratic in keeping up my membership.

My support of Amnesty ended today with Amnesty’s announcement that they would fight for “full decriminalization of all aspects of consensual sex work.” This tragic, and stupid, mistake suggests that the people running this organization do not know what they are doing. Perhaps for all their human rights work, they have never actually been to a developing country?

According to the NY Times, Amnesty says that “its research suggests decriminalization is the best way to defend sex workers’ human rights.” But a leaked early version of its proposal contended that “sexual desire is a fundamental need…