Giovanni Bonello

Judge, Human Rights Expert, Author and Historian

(an excerpt from The Maltese by Tony S. Mangion)

Giovanni Bonello was born on 11th Jun 1936, in Floriana and educated at Lyceum and the Royal University of Malta from where he graduated LP (1954) and LL.D. (1958).

He is judge of the European Court of Human Rights in Strasbourg.  He has specialized in human rights and defended 170 cases before the Maltese Courts, the European Commission and the European Court of Human Rights.  He has contributed extensively to the development of the law protecting human rights in the islands.

Bonello is also an authority on Maltese history and history of art in Malta.  His large number of articles on these themes, scattered in local newspapers and academic journals, are ample proof of his dedication to this boyhood love.  He is also a postal history expert and the owner of a huge collection of about 20,000 antique Maltese postcards.  He co-authored with Graham Smeed Maltese Picture Postcards, 1898-1906 (1985) and edited Girolamo Gianni in Mata (1994).

He recently published Art in Malta--Discoveries and Recoveries (1999);  Histories of Malta-Deceptions and Perceptions (2001) and Histories of Malta -- Versions and Diversion (2002) he also writes on the history of antiques.

Bonello is Cavaliere della Republica, an honor bestowed upon him by the Italian President, and Knight of Magisterial Grace of Sovereign Military Order of St. John.  Bonello is also a committee member of Fondazzjoni Patrimonju Malti.