Monitoring the number of political prisoners in Hong Kong 

“There have been 1,014 political prisoners in Hong Kong from June 9, 2019, to May 10, 2022… Hong Kong now has one of fastest-growing populations of political prisoners in the world, rivaling Belarus, Burma, and Cuba, other societies where authoritarian governments have recently cracked down on protest movements… Overall, this situation constitutes no less than a grave human rights crisis.”

The Hong Kong Political Prisoners Database (HKPPD) is a long-term project launched by HKDC to monitor the rise of Hong Kong political prisoners, raise their profile internationally, and demand action from a multitude of actors. 

Our research report (Hong Kong Reaches a Grim Milestone: 1,000 Political Prisoners) provides the first comprehensive overview of political prisoners in Hong Kong, documents significant trends and patterns, and call for action from governments, the United Nations human rights system and other actors. 

This webpage hosts the Hong Kong Political Prisoners Database underlying our research, which will be continually updated for long-term monitoring and is made public to researchers or journalists interested in further analyses. This webpage also serves as a portal to access all current and future reports, and interactive visual displays for the public to better understand the situation of Hong Kong political prisoners.

Report, press release & media coverage   

Download our dataset

The latest version of the dataset can be downloaded here for research or educational purposes. Please use the following citation when using this dataset:

Kern, Brian, et al. (2022). Hong Kong Political Prisoners Database. Washington, DC: Hong Kong Democracy Council.