Can the United Nations be taken to court? Has an arm of the UN ever been sued in the world or domestic court?

Question

Basically, has a country OR individual ever successfully challenged the UN in any court? Or are they immune? Is there no way to challenge them, even if you're a country?

Answer 1

Sure.  The United Nations is being sued, for the first time in its history, for alleged complicity in the crime of genocide. Lawyers are instituting a case on behalf of two Rwandan women whose families died during the 1994 genocide in which 800,000, mostly Tutsi people, were slaughtered by Hutus.  

However... it is usually the other way around.   Ex:  A country can be brought before the International Court of Justice (ICJ), as it was in the Nicargua v. US case (for the US' illegal mining of Nicaraguan harbors in the 1980s, which Nicaragua won). The UN is made of member states so only one of its member states could bring a case against the US in the ICJ. The UN, as an entity, isn't bound by national laws in any member state so would not seek 'justice' in a national court (or lower court).

The US does not recognise the International Criminal Court (ICC) but presumably it could still be brought before it by a member state (but would argue against jurisidiction)...

Answer 2

Yes, the United Nations may be taken to court.

Answer 3

I'm sure there are many suits against the UN and theortically they can be taken to court, but I don't think many courts in the world are going to make a judgment against the UN - for policy reasons.

Plus the ICJ and ICC may be said to be operated independently from the UN, but without the UN they would not exist.