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Summarised by Centrist
New Zealand has formally rejected the World Health Organisation’s 2024 amendments to the International Health Regulations, with Winston Peters saying decisions about the health of New Zealanders should be made “from Wellington, not Geneva.”
The move blocks the new amendments from applying domestically, while leaving New Zealand inside the existing IHR framework.
The amendments were adopted by the World Health Assembly on 1 June 2024 as part of a post-COVID effort to tighten the global rules around outbreak detection, information sharing, preparedness and emergency coordination.
WHO documents show the changes included a clearer definition of a “pandemic emergency” and a wider package of amendments across multiple articles and annexes of the regulations. Under Article 61, countries had a set period in which to reject them.
New Zealand has now exercised that opt-out. The Ministry of Health says plainly that “New Zealand has decided to reject the 2024 amendments to the IHR” and confirmed that decision was communicated to the WHO Director-General on 16 March 2026. The ministry also notes that adoption by the World Health Assembly “was not a legally binding step” for member countries, including New Zealand, and that the country had already rejected a 2022 Article 59 change in order to preserve a longer domestic decision window for future amendments.
Peters framed the decision as a sovereignty issue and a campaign promise kept, saying New Zealand First had “always said that any decisions about the health of Kiwis should be made from Wellington, not Geneva” and that the government was acting to “maintain our sovereign decision making, and to push back on globalist bureaucrats.”
Read more over at X and Chris Lynch Media
