Brazil's Senate agreed to set up a Truth Commission to investigate human rights violations during the country's 1964-1985 military dictatorship, officials said.
The legislation passed, according to the congressional news agency, having already been approved by the House of Deputies, and now awaits President Dilma Rousseff's signature to take effect.
Rousseff, a former guerrilla fighter now aged 63, is Brazil's first woman and second leftist to be elected president.
She had urged Congress to act swiftly on the Truth Commission bill -- seen as key to national reconciliation -- which was put before lawmakers by her predecessor, also of the Workers Party, Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva.
The commission is meant to investigate issues including politically motivated abductions in the Cold War-era, rights abuses and murders over a time span longer than the dictatorship -- 1946-1988.
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