Wikipedia:Arbitration/Guide to arbitration/Draft

The Arbitration Committee was established in 2004 and has the following responsibilities:

1. To act as a final binding decision-maker primarily for serious conduct disputes the community has been unable to resolve;
2. To hear appeals from blocked, banned, or otherwise restricted users;
3. To handle requests (other than self-requests or routine removal for inactivity) for removal of administrative tools;
4. To resolve matters unsuitable for public discussion for privacy, legal, or similar reasons;
5. To approve and remove access to (i) CheckUser and Oversight tools and (ii) mailing lists maintained by the Arbitration Committee.

—Wikipedia:Arbitration/Policy#Scope and responsibilities

The committee is composed of fifteen members (known also as arbitrators) who are elected by the English Wikipedia community in annual elections.

Nomenclature

• Requests
  • Cases
  • Amendment
  • Clarification
  • Motions
• Cases
• Noticeboard
• Enforcement

Further information

Ban appeals, desysopping, assignment and removal of advanced permissions, and other committee business that is not related to the arbitration process is not dealt with by this guide.

See also

• Administrator enforcement requested: Summary of cases and remedies currently in force
• Arbitration enforcement noticeboard: Any user can request help here if it involves the violation of an ArbCom decision
• Policy for arbitration proceedings: Arbitration policy section concerning open proceedings
• Closed cases: summaries and links to all closed arbitration cases, sorted by month and year
• Index of principles: Some principles from prior cases
• Rejected requests: index of rejected requests for arbitration (incomplete prior to May 2007)