Drawing on the Brazilian National Truth Commission’s (CNV) 2012 investigation into corporate involvement in the dictatorship’s repressive apparatus as a starting point, this report presents findings from a University of Oxford study that systematically analyzed 39 final truth commission reports across 30 countries to assess how these bodies have addressed corporate complicity in human rights abuses.

The research reveals that over half of the truth gathering bodies that issued final reports recognized business involvement in gross violations of human rights during dictatorships and armed conflicts. The most prevalent form of complicity identified was financing repression, while specific violations linked to companies included detention, torture, forced disappearance, and slave labor. Geographically, findings are concentrated in Latin America and Africa.

Despite this recognition, only about half of the relevant commissions issued recommendations on remedy, and only Brazil explicitly called for further investigation and possible prosecution of companies. The report concludes that a significant “governance gap” persists between identifying corporate responsibility and establishing effective accountability mechanisms for victims.