Vincent Del Buono

Past President of the Society

Member of  the Society Board of Directors
Past President of the Society

Vincent Del Buono served as Coordinator, Access to Justice Programs for the British Council in Nigeria for several years prior to returning to Canada where he is currently a legal consultant. Mr. Del Buono received a B.A. (York University, 1972), a M.A. (University of Toronto, 1974), an LLB (University of Toronto, 1975).  He was called to the bar of the Province of Alberta in 1976.  Between 1977 and 1994 Mr. Del Buono served as an Assistant and Adjunct Professor of  Law at McGill University, the University of Ottawa, the University of British Columbia and Southwestern University of Los Angeles

Mr. Del Buono served as Counsel, and then Senior Counsel, with the Law Reform Commission of Canada and the Department of Justice of Canada, from 1980 to 1991.  During these years he was involved in several legal policy and criminal law reform initiatives including the drafting of a new Canadian Criminal Code, sentencing reform, police powers and procedures as well as human rights in the administration of justice.

Mr. Del Buono served as the first President of the International Society for the Reform of Criminal Law when it was founded in August 1988.  He held that office until December 1994.  He also served as the initial President of the International Centre for Criminal Law Reform and Criminal Justice Policy from 1991 until April 1994.

From October 1994 until July 1998,  Mr. Del Buono provided direct advisory services and other technical assistance to ministers and senior government officials as an Interregional Advisor for the United Nations Crime Prevention and Criminal Justice Programme, Centre for International Crime Prevention (CICP), at Vienna, Austria.  His advice related to the formulation, implementation and evaluation of measures aimed at improving governance in the administration of justice and assisting countries to develop their legal systems through the implementation of United Nations guidelines, principles, codes, standards and norms.

In 1998 he served as a senior member of the United Nations Department of Peacekeeping Operations Mission in Bosnia and Herzegovina in a programme established by the Security Council to re-establish the rule of law and the independence of the judiciary in Bosnia.

As a consultant on governance and international justice issues Mr. Del Buono was web editor of the World Justice Information Network, an Internet based system for building knowledge and sharing open source information on crime, justice and the rule of law and acted as a consultant for the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) mission on legal and judicial reform

From September 1999 – 2001 he was Deputy Secretary General (Political), Amnesty International in the Regional and International Programmes Section of the International Secretariat London, England.  This section gives legal advice and coordinates Amnesty International’s work with the United Nations and other inter-governmental bodies.