Dr Vetere was re-elected as Vice President of International Association of Anti-Corruption Authorities in October 2011.

Having worked as a Research Officer at the UN Crime and Justice Research Institute (1969 - 1975) ; Social Affairs Officer with the UN Department of International Economic and Social Affairs (1976 - 1984) ; and Senior Programme Officer with the UN Fund for Drug Abuse Control (1984 - 1987); he headed from 1987 to 1997 the UN Crime Prevention and Criminal Justice Programme, which is now an integral part of the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) and, from 2003 to 2005, he was the Director of the Division for Treaty Affairs of UNODC.

He was also the Provincial Director of Phnom Penh with the United Nations Transitional Authority in Cambodia peace-keeping mission and Officer-in-Charge for Public Security responsible for re-establishing Cambodia's criminal justice infrastructure (1992 - 1993); Director of the Centre for International Crime Prevention (1997 - 2002); Director of the Office of the Special Envoy of the Secretary-General in Iraq (1998 - 1999); Chairman of the Identification Commission of the UN Mission for the Referendum on Western Sahara and Deputy Special Representative of the Secretary-General (1999 - 2001). He has served as Executive Secretary of the Eighth, Ninth and Eleventh UN Congresses on Crime Prevention and Criminal Justice.

He received his doctorate in law/jurisprudence at the University of Rome, with specialization in criminal law and criminology at the Universities of Cambridge and Rome. He authored several publications in the fields of human rights in the administration of justice, criminal justice statistics, developmental issues and international cooperation in criminal matters.