Arbitration Committee
An Arbitration Committee (sometimes abbreviated as "ArbCom") is a small group of trusted users who serve as the last step of dispute resolution on some individual Wikimedia Foundation projects. Originally set up on the English Wikipedia by Jimmy Wales to take over his role in resolving complex disputes between users, Arbitration Committees are now used on approximately ten Wikipedia versions and the English Wikinews.
Composition[edit]
Committees typically have five to fifteen members, who are known as Arbitrators. Terms vary in length, with some as long as three years.
On the English Wikipedia, Jimmy Wales has reserve authority to appoint and dismiss committee members, or to disband the committee and force new elections. Previously, non-binding community votes were used to present candidates for appointment. The community now runs standard elections to select committee members.
Projects with Arbitration Committees[edit]
- Wikipedia versions
| Project | Name | |
|---|---|---|
| cs – Czech | Arbitrážní výbor | |
| de – German | Schiedsgericht | arbcomde-l lists.wikimedia.org
|
| en – English | Arbitration Committee | arbcom-enwikimedia.org
|
| fa – Persian | هیئت نظارت | |
| fi – Finnish | Välityslautakunta | |
| hu – Hungarian | Wikitanács | |
| nl – Dutch | Arbitragecommissie | arbcom-nllists.wikimedia.org
|
| pl – Polish | Komitet Arbitrażowy | |
| ru – Russian | Арбитражный комитет | |
| uk – Ukrainian | Арбітражний комітет |
- Wikinews
Projects with inactive or trial Arbitration Committees[edit]
- Wikipedia versions
- Arabic (inactive)
- Bulgarian (there is a page on arbitration policy; an ArbCom hasn't been established yet)
- Croatian (inactive)
- (First version) An ArbCom that was proposed (and discussed) in May 2007, never reached consensus
- (Second version) Existed from 7 June 2009 to 23 January 2010
- Italian (page deleted).
- An ArbCom was proposed in 2006, never reached consensus.
- Spanish (dissolved April 2009)
- French Comité d'arbitrage (inactive as of 29 September 2019)
- Korean (No arbitrators elected since December 2015, arbcom function suspended as of 18 March 2017.)
- Occitan (A setting up was proposed in 2006, an election has been planned in December 2008 but was never realized)
- Portuguese (dissolved January 2012)
- Swedish (inactive)
- Slovenian (deleted, with a redirect to Wikipedija:Mediacija). The page exists only as a framework for eventual setting up. The mediation wasn't needed so far, so the rules for the election process haven't been established yet.
- Thai (term expired in January 2016, no elections held since)
