Arbitration Committee

On Wikimedia Foundation projects, an Arbitration Committee (sometimes abbreviated as "ArbCom") is a small group of trusted users who serve as a means of dispute resolution that have been initiated on some individual Wikimedia Foundation projects. Rulings, policies and procedures differ between projects depending on local and cultural contexts. According to the Wikimedia Terms of Use, users are not obliged to have a dispute solved by an ArbCom.^[1] The first Wikimedia project to use an arbitration committee was the Swedish Wikipedia.^[2] The English Wikipedia ArbCom was created by Jimmy Wales as an extension of the decision-making power he formerly held as CEO of site-owner Bomis Inc., to take over his role in resolving complex disputes between users.^[3] Arbitration Committees are now used on 12 Wikipedia versions.

Committees typically have five to fifteen members, who are known as Arbitrators. Terms vary in length, with some as long as three years.

Project	Native name	Established	E-mail	Private wiki	Notes
cs – Czech	Arbitrážní výbor	2006	arbcom-cslistswikimediaorg	arbcom-cs.wikipedia.org
de – German	Schiedsgericht	2007	arbcomde-llistswikimediaorg	arbcom-de.wikipedia.org
en – English	Arbitration Committee	2004	arbcom-enwikimediaorg	arbcom-en.wikipedia.org
fa – Persian	هیئت نظارت	2010			Limited purview, mainly a supervisory council for complaints against admins
fi – Finnish	Välityslautakunta	2007		arbcom-fi.wikipedia.org
hu – Hungarian	Wikitanács	2009
it – Italian	Commissione arbitrale	2024	wikipedia-it-arbcomlistswikimediaorg	wikipedia-it-arbcom.wikimedia.org	Deals with complaints regarding the UCoC enforcement and appeals to block following a community procedure for problematic users (note: this procedure applies also to admins and could lead to deflag by community)
nl – Dutch	Arbitragecommissie	2007	arbcom-nllistswikimediaorg	arbcom-nl.wikipedia.org
pl – Polish	Komitet Arbitrażowy	2007	wikipedia-pl-arbcomlistswikimediaorg
ru – Russian	Арбитражный комитет	2005	arbcom-ruwikimediaorg	arbcom-ru.wikipedia.org	New every half-a-year
uk – Ukrainian	Арбітражний комітет	2009
zh – Chinese	仲裁委员会/仲裁委員會	2024			The ArbCom was rejected for several times, however the recent discussion in 2024 reached a consensus to establish it. The election was held in November 2024.

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
• Spanish (dissolved April 2009)
• 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)
• French (No arbitrators elected since September 2021)

Wikivoyage versions

• Spanish Wikivoyage (proposal rejected)

Wikinews versions

• English Wikinews (established in 2006, inactive since 2021)

• Arbitration Committee/Election processes
• Arbitration Committee/Cross-wiki arbitration committee
• wikt:arbitration, wikt:committee