Between 1974 and 1976, the “Russell Tribunal II on Repression in Brazil, Chile and Latin America” convened three times in Rome and Brussels to address state crimes and corporate violence committed during the dictatorships in Latin America. The result of an exceptional transnational collaborative effort, this people’s tribunal brought together jurists, exiles and intellectuals to collect evidence and judge violations of international law in several Latin American countries.

The Tribunal’s second session focussed entirely on the role of transnational corporations in the repression in countries under investigation, trying to make sense of the link between the repressive regimes installed in the region and economic exploitation by transnational corporations. Taking place before the institutionalisation of the business and human rights approach and criminal corporate accountability, the Russell Tribunal II offers an important glimpse on alternative visions of corporate accountability in the context of the struggle over international law and a New International Economic Order.

Based on the archival material from the Russell Tribunal II and interviews with surviving participants, we are currently studying how the people involved with the Russell Tribunal II tried to make sense – politically and legally – of the responsibility of transnational corporations for systematic human rights abuses.

To navigate the Tribunal’s vast archival collection provided by the Fondazione Basso, we are generating a searchable database of the archival documents. We use text-based, visual and literary methods to evaluate the material. The project is carried out in cooperation with Prof. Bethania Assy (PUC-Rio de Janeiro).