Corporations can be implicated in human rights violations in direct and indirect ways: Direct violations are caused by corporations through their own activities; indirect violations are caused by third parties and corporations contribute indirectly. This chapter looks in detail at this important distinction between direct and indirect human rights violations. It presents a common typology of different kinds of complicity, ranging from direct to indirect, beneficial and silent complicity. It then contrasts some legal and non-legal implications deriving from these. Before doing so, some critical reflection on terminology is provided, particularly as it pertains to the notions of human rights impacts and human rights violations.

This chapter provides an overview of the book in terms of concepts and content. It introduces the reader to the questions of what accountability for corporate complicity in human rights violations is, why they take place, and when, where, and how they unfold. It also explores obstacles that have blocked accountability efforts. The chapter sets out the concepts of “corporate,” “complicity,” “accountability,” and “transitional justice.” It examines when and why there is need for accountability for these types of violations.It further considers where corporate accountability could take place, in courts and in truth commissions. The chapter sets out the argument for how accountability processes have occurred, their reliance on civil society demand and institutional innovators to overcome the absence of international pressure and the obstacles posed by a powerful business veto. It uses these factors to present the “justice from below” model used in the book. It suggests that the model functions like Archimedes’ Lever in putting the right tools in weak hands to lift the weight of international human rights accountability. A chapter outline is also provided.

This chapter explores how accountability barriers can be overcome. First, it contrasts transitional justice accountability efforts with regard to state and rebel actors with corporate accountability efforts. It explores why the same international pressure that played such a crucial role in advancing accountability in such contexts has not emerged in corporate accountability efforts. It also looks at veto players and examine why their power was reduced in those efforts, and are so strong in corporate accountability.

Second, it examines conceptually when and why local efforts can overcome the absence of international pressure and the power of the corporate veto to advance accountability. It discusses the significance of domestic actors over international ones bridging two previously unconnected literatures: transitional justice and business and human rights approaches.

The concluding section develops the Archimedes’ lever analogy for corporate accountability from below, establishing scope conditions, key actors and factors at work. It contends that corporate accountability from below is not merely an abstract analytical exercise. It is one grounded in, and in dialogue with, empirical, comparative, and historical analyses. It further aims to sharpen, refine, adapt, and make accessible to corporate accountability advocates, a set of tools to advance corporate accountability.