Ombuds commission/ne

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The ombuds commission, on behalf of the Board of Trustees , investigates complaints about infringements of the Privacy Policy, the Access to nonpublic personal data policy, the CheckUser policy and the Oversight policy, on any Wikimedia project.

As a global community body, they will not investigate compliance with a requirement imposed by local community policies additionally to the requirements of global policy. They can investigate whether the terms of local CheckUser or Oversight policies or guidelines comply with the global CheckUser and Oversight policies. Local policies are permitted to go further than global policy in protecting user privacy, but not to opt out of global policy in any way.

The Commission are not an appeal body for local or global administrative actions, such as blocks, locks, and bans. Where those have been based on checkuser or oversight information, the initial checkuser or oversight action can be investigated, but the subsequent block or other result should be referred to other global or local bodies.

Tasks

In addition to official investigation, they will mediate between the complainant and the respondent (usually a CheckUser , oversighter, प्रशासक , प्रवन्धक , or arbitration committee member). When legally necessary, the ombuds will assist the General Counsel, the Executive Director or the board in handling the case.

When the case is litigious, the ombuds will be in charge of educating CheckUsers or others about the Foundation's privacy policy. When the Privacy Policy, Access to Nonpublic Information Policy, CheckUser Policy, or Oversight policy have been breached, the ombuds commission should report to the Executive Director or designated staff and recommend a course of action (such as removal of access to tools). Additionally, the commission might suggest suitable changes to policies or software.

Neutrality

An ombuds' investigation should be conducted in a manner determined by the ombuds to ensure fairness and impartiality. As a general guideline, it is best that ombuds avoid conflicts of interest as much as possible, particularly by avoiding routine use of CheckUser or oversight access and not processing complaints on the projects on which they are very active editors. However, matters that come before the commission are not clear-cut, and the language and culture of various projects may pose barriers to outsiders. As such, how the commission investigates complaints is left to the discretion of its appointed members.

Membership

Members of the ombuds commission are selected from the Wikimedia community by Wikimedia Foundation officials. A call for volunteers is issued each year in early October on the Wikimedia-L mailing list and on the talk page of this policy, as well as other project forums as appropriate. They are appointed (assuming they agree) for a period of approximately two years (one year, prior to the 2023–25 Commission). One or more non-voting alternate member(s) may also be appointed. A Steward-Observer may be appointed to serve alongside the Ombudspeople.

Current members

User	Communities where active	Language spoken	IRC nick	Term expires
Ameisenigel (CA)	dewiki, wikidatawiki	de, en-4, nds-2, fr-1, tlh-1	Ameisenigel	2028
Arcticocean (CA)	metawiki, enwiki	en, sco-3, gd-1		2028