Dr Vetere was Vice President of International Association of Anti-Corruption Authorities (IAACA) in 2006–2022, and is currently an Executive Committee Member. In 2012 he was elected as a Member of the Board of Governors of the International Anti-Corruption Academy (IACA) for a term of six years and in 2016 became its Chairman. He is also one of the Founding Members of the UNODC Anti-Corruption Academic Initiative (ACAD).

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), first as Director of the United Nations International Crime Prevention Centre from 1997 to 2002 and, from 2003 to 2005, as Director of the Division for Treaty Affairs of UNODC. He has also served as Executive Secretary of the Eighth, Ninth and Eleventh UN Crime Prevention and Criminal Justice Congresses.

He was also involved in a number of UN peace-keeping missions, firstly as Provincial Director of Phnom Penh with the United Nations Transitional Authority in Cambodia (UNTAC), serving also as Officer-in-Charge for Public Security responsible for re-establishing Cambodia’s criminal justice infrastructure (1992-1993); after as Director of the Office of the Special Envoy of the Secretary-General in Iraq (1998-1999); and later as 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 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 criminal law and criminology, organized crime, corruption, human rights in the administration of justice, criminal justice statistics, developmental issues and international cooperation in criminal matters.