The country’s government has formally written to the World Health Organisation rejecting the rules around international standards and cooperation.
New Zealand has formally rejected amendments to the International Health Regulations (IHR), which lay out how World Health Organisation (WHO) member countries will handle future pandemics.
New Zealand’s Ministry of Health described the IHR as the “principal international legal framework for preventing and controlling the spread of disease between countries.”
Foreign Minister Winston Peters announced the decision on X on March 17 saying his party had “always said that any decisions about the health of Kiwis should be made from Wellington, not Geneva.
“We have fought on your behalf for these IHR amendments to be fully rejected, we made a promise to put the national interests of New Zealanders first, to maintain our sovereign decision making, and to push back on globalist bureaucrats—and we have kept that promise,” he wrote.
Peters said New Zealand’s permanent mission to the U.N. had informed the WHO’s director general of the decision.
Rejecting the WHO pandemic treaty was a condition of New Zealand First joining the centre-right National Party and the libertarian ACT to form the current government in 2023.
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