Bonino is a leading member of the Italian Radicals, a political party which describes itself "liberale, liberista, and libertario", where liberista denotes economic liberalism and libertario a form of cultural liberalism concerning moral issues, with some ideological connection with historical left-libertarianism.

She is the leader of More Europe, a liberal, European federalist party list she launched in December 2017, ahead of the 2018 Italian general election.

[3] Bonino is a godmother of Countess Luana, elder daughter of Prince Friso and Princess Mabel of Orange-Nassau.

On 12 January 2015, she announced on Radio Radicale she was suffering from lung cancer and was being treated with chemotherapy, though she also stated she was not abandoning her political activity.

In October 1994, she was appointed head of the Italian Government delegation to the UN General Assembly for the "Moratorium on death penalty" initiative.

[12] On 15 March 1999, together with all the Santer Commission, she resigned due to the accusations of fraud and mismanagement against commissioner Édith Cresson.

In November 2002, she was appointed Head of the Italian Government delegation at the Inter-governmental Conference of the Community of Democracies in Seoul.

From 1999 to 2004, the Lista Bonino was non-affiliated, as it was founded with a claim to not adhere to the traditional centre-left versus centre-right politics, rather remaining in the middle to maximize any potential bargaining power.

Bonino led the ceremonies, which gathered medical experts, ambassadors, and politicians to review graphic information about the practice of female genital mutilation in African countries.

At the conclusion of the meeting, the Prime Minister Berlusconi congratulated Bonino on her accomplishments in this cause and presented the leader of AIDOS with a check for the European Campaign.

In January 2004, she organized the "Regional Conference on Democracy, Human Rights and the role of the International Penal Court", the first for an Arabic country.

[17] Bonino writes opinion editorials and commentaries for both the Inter Press Service News Agency and Project Syndicate, discussing contemporary international issues including Syrian refugees affecting Europe, abolishing the death penalty, relations between Iran and Europe, and the poor treatment of the indigenous people of South East Asia.

[18][19][20][21] Bonino is a member of the eminent international Council of Patrons of the Asian University for Women (AUW) in Chittagong, Bangladesh.