Warning: Trigger alert -- this may be very difficult to read as the content refers to the sexual and physical abuse of children.

The 2000 leaked Nauru files published this week have left the world reeling. They provide raw evidence of children being abused and tortured on a horrifying scale.

Children seeking asylum in Australia and being detained on the island of Nauru are being sexually abused. They’re being physically abused. And they’re being tortured. One traumatised girl sewed her own lips shut -- and was laughed at by guards.

Now we have a choice. We could turn our backs, telling ourselves this is Australia’s problem. It’s the Australian government putting human lives -- children’s lives -- into the hands of private corporations, and then failing to hold those corporations to account.

Or we could open our eyes to what’s happening. All around the world, private corporations are profiting from the detention of innocent human beings -- often in brutal conditions -- with the complicity of national governments. And then we could come together to say we, the citizens of the world, refuse to tolerate this any longer.

Sign our petition to the leaders of the world saying it's time to end detention globally.

The word ‘detention’ is kind of clinical. It’s dry, it’s easy to skim over -- it’s easy to ignore. But the Nauru files have given us a horrifying glimpse into the reality behind the word. And that reality is, that in Nauru, more than 400 people -- including dozens of children -- have fled war, poverty, famine and abuse only to arrive in a nightmare propagated by a corporation that is funded by the Australian taxpayer.

That experience is sadly commonplace. In the UK, for example, many of the women detained at the privately run detention centre Yarl’s Wood -- some 70% of them rape survivors -- report being raped and sexually abused by the very people who should be protecting them: the detention centre’s staff. Again, the centre is run by a private corporation and again, the government is complicit in protecting corporate interests over human safety.

As citizens of the world, let’s say no more: it's time to end detention.

We only know what’s happening in Nauru because documents were leaked. Had they not been, we would be carrying on with our lives, more or less oblivious.

But they have been leaked, and now we know what’s going on -- at least in Nauru. And we have a better idea of how corporations around the world will treat detained women and children if they think they can get away with it, if they’re unfettered by transparency or accountability.

In countries around the world, SumOfUs members have been standing up to the security corporations that profit from detaining innocent people in multi-million dollar business deals. We’ve been demanding accountability, we’ve been demanding transparency. And while we’ve had some major successes, we’ve been let down by our governments, who repeatedly put commercial interests over humanity.

So now it’s time for us come together as a global movement and tell our governments that corporations can’t be trusted to run detention centres. Please join us, and sign our global petition, which we’ll deliver to our national governments:

It’s time to end detention centres. Let’s. Shut. Them. Down.