Accountability for Volkswagen's role in the Brazilian dictatorship

Colla De Amorim, F.; Sion, V.; Machado, R. (2022)

Part of book or chapter of book

This chapter describes and analyzes the truth trial against Volkswagen for its role in the detention, torture, and disappearance of workers during the Brazilian dictatorship (1964-1985). This chapter uses the Archimedes’ Lever model to trace the evolution of the corporate accountability process since the country's democratization, through the establishment of the National Truth Commission (CNV), up to the negotiations between the company, the workers, and the Public Prosecutor’s Office (MPF) that reached an agreement in 2020. This case has seen mobilisation from unions and institutional innovators pushing for accountability, as well as a certain level of cooperation from the company, but it also faces strong veto players and a change in context with the election of Jair Bolsonaro as president in 2018. We conclude with notions of what the Volkswagen case has to offer to understand corporate accountability and transitional justice, and the enormous hurdles it faces in achieving those goals.

• Volkswagen
• National Truth Commission
• Workers
• Accountability

• All authors: Colla De Amorim, F.; Sion, V.; Machado, R.
• Editor(s): Payne, L.A.; Bernal-Bermúdez, L.; Pereira, G.
• Date: 2022-01-06
• Title of host publication: Proceedings of the British Academy; Economic actors and the limits of transitional justice: truth and justice for business complicity in human rights violations
• Pages: 74 - 95
• ISBN (print): 9780197267264
• Link: https://global.oup.com/academic/product/economic-actors-and-the-limits-o...
• Name: 241