Tiōng-tshâi Uí-uânhuē

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.

The first Wikimedia project to use an arbitration committee was the Swedish Wikipedia.

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.

Arbitration Committees are now used on 12 Wikipedia versions.

Tsoo-sîng

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

Projects with Arbitration Committees

Uikipitia pán-pún

Kè-uē	Miâ-jī	Established	Email	Su-jîn uiki	Tsù-kái
cs – 捷克文	Arbitrážní výbor	2006 nî	arbcom-cslistswikimediaorg	arbcom-cs.wikipedia.org
de – 德文	Schiedsgericht	2007 nî	arbcomde-llistswikimediaorg	arbcom-de.wikipedia.org
en – 英文	Arbitration Committee	2004 nî	arbcom-enwikimediaorg	arbcom-en.wikipedia.org
fa – 波斯文	هیئت نظارت	2010 nî			Limited purview, mainly a supervisory council for complaints against admins
fi – 芬蘭文	Välityslautakunta	2007 nî		arbcom-fi.wikipedia.org
hu – 匈牙利文	Wikitanács	2009 nî
it – 義大利文	Commissione arbitrale	2024 nî	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 – 荷蘭文	Arbitragecommissie	2007 nî	arbcom-nllistswikimediaorg	arbcom-nl.wikipedia.org
pl – 波蘭文	Komitet Arbitrażowy	2007 nî	wikipedia-pl-arbcomlistswikimediaorg
ru – 俄文	Арбитражный комитет	2005 nî	arbcom-ruwikimediaorg	arbcom-ru.wikipedia.org	New every half-a-year
uk – 烏克蘭文	Арбітражний комітет	2009 nî
zh – 中文	仲裁委员会/仲裁委員會	2025 nî	wikipedia-zh-arbcomlistswikimediaorg		The idea was rejected for several times, until the recent discussion in 2024 which reached a consensus to establish it, and the first election of its members was held in November 2024

Projects with inactive, trial or dissolved Arbitration Committees

W-Uikipitia pán-pún

• 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)
• Suītiángí (bô ua̍h-thiàu)
• 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)
• 法文 (No arbitrators elected since September 2021)

Wikivoyage versions

• 西班牙語維基導遊 （proposal rejected）

Wikinews versions

• 英語維基新聞 （established in 2006, inactive since 2021）

Tsham-ua̍t

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

References