Hollywood stars, including Oscar-winning actresses Meryl Streep, Kate Winslet and Emma Thompson, have lent their support to a petition demanding that Amnesty International reject the decriminalisation of the sex trade. The global human rights group is to review, at a meeting in Dublin, Ireland next month, an internal policy document on sex work, according to the Coalition Against Trafficking in Women.If the policy is adopted, Amnesty would "in effect advocate the legalisation of pimping, brothel owning and sex buying - the pillars of a $99-billion global sex industry", the US-based coalition said.Nearly 2600 members of the public have signed the petition since it was posted on change.org last week, and endorsed by women's rights campaigners and celebrities such as actors Emily Blunt, Lena Dunham and Anne Hathaway.The coalition says decriminalisation of the sex trade renders pimps "business people" who "sell vulnerable individuals with impunity". But Amnesty says there is evidence that the criminalisation of consensual-adult-sex work can lead to greater abuse against sex workers, including violence, arbitrary arrest and detention, extortion and exclusions from health care, housing and other social and legal benefits. ..