[1] Members of the commission had access to all government files about the 1946–1988 period and could convene victims or people accused of violations for testimony; although it wasn't mandatory for them to attend.

[3][4] The report identified the participation of 337 agents of Brazilian government involved in human rights violations, including arbitrary prisons, forced disappearings, torture and subsequent death of political opponents to the dictatorship.

However, in reality, the elections held were heavily manipulated and the military openly threatened Congress if it began to operate against the views and wishes of the regime.

[8] In 1979 the Brazilian government passed an amnesty law that allowed all exiled activists to return to Brazil but also protected officials involved in the military regime from any prosecution for human rights violations committed prior to 1979.

This project did not have an official mandate, although unofficially one of the participants said that they were working to preserve the military records and inform society about the abuses suffered by Brazilians under the dictatorship.

[10] This report, however, failed to effect much change in Brazil as the 1979 Amnesty law protected the perpetrators of human rights violations during the regime and the project never had any governmental backing to legitimize it.

[11] This law marks the first time that the State accepted responsibility for the illicit acts of the military regime, including kidnapping, torture, imprisonment, forced disappearance, murder, and violations against foreigners living in Brazil.

With this law came the option for families affected by the illicit activities of the military regime to request the death certificates of those disappeared and receive compensation.

In addition to these reparations, the CEMDP in September 2006 began collecting blood samples from families of people killed during the regime to create a DNA database to identify the remains of victims.

This book outlined the results of eleven years of labor by the CEMDP, serving as the first official report by the Brazilian State to directly accuse members of the military for crimes such as torture, dismemberment, decapitation, rape, concealing bodies, and murder.

[12] Since 2007, memorials titled "Indispensable People" have been erected around Brazil, helping to restore some of the history of those political dissidents who died during the military regime.

[13] The Resistance Memorial is one of the most important transitional justice initiatives in Brazil, possessing an extensive archive and the mandate to preserve the history of contemporary political struggles in the country.

This reference center makes available information to the public about the political history of Brazil, and is run under the supervision of the National Archives, an organization that reports directly to the Office of the Chief of Staff of the Presidency of the Republic.

Although international pressure wants the law overturned, supreme court chairman Cezar Peluso says, "If it’s true that every people, according to its own culture, solves its own historical problems in its own manner, then Brazil has chosen the way of harmony."

On 24 March 2012, federal prosecutors charged Colonel Carlos Alberto Brilhante Ustra and Police Chief Dirceu Garvina, with the kidnapping of a union leader Aluzio Palhano Pedreira Ferreira in 1971.

The law also lists in detail all the punishments that entitle victims to the status of recipients of political amnesty, and it states that financial reparations, provided for in chapter III, may be paid in two different ways: in a single installment, consisting of the payment of 30 times the minimum monthly wage per year of punishment for those who cannot prove an employment relationship, and whose value may not, under any circumstances, exceed 100,000 reais; or in permanent and continuous monthly installments, guaranteed to those who can prove an employment relationship.

[20] It hopes to help victims, find bodies of the disappeared, establish the policies and actions of the dictatorship, and recommend measures to prevent further human rights violations.

[20] The amnesty bill put into place in 1979, stated in article 11 that "This Law, beyond the rights expressed herein, does not generate any others, including those relating to remuneration, payments, salaries, income, restitution, dues, compensation, advances or reimbursements."

Due to objections from both the military and human rights activists, Rousseff at first stepped back from the Truth Commission she signed into law in November 2011.

[26] In particular, he mentioned that the commission's information comes from three primary sources: archives of intelligence operations that existed during the military dictatorship, testimonies of suspects and surviving victims, and other documents supplied by the government of Brazil.

[26] While the commission took time to gain enough political support and fulfill the requirements of the mandate, there have been significant developments in the formation of a national truth in Brazil over the course of the last year.

[30] On January 11, 2013, the Comissão Nacional da Verdade (CNV) released its first torture allegation from outside the military dictatorship, during the government of Getúlio Vargas.