Under the Hong Kong Public Order Ordinance (Cap. 245), any person wishing to organise a public procession of more than 30 participants or a public assembly of more than 50 participants must notify the police in writing. The police are required by law to issue either a notice of objection or a notice of no objection to the public event, and they have the authority to impose any conditions they deem necessary on the arrangements for the procession or assembly.

This database records all public event notices issued by the Hong Kong Police Force since 2023, and compiles statistics, categorisation, and analysis based on their content. The database includes only public events that were notified to the Police under the Public Order Ordinance; it does not cover public events that did not require notification or where no notification was made.

For the purposes of this database, we adopt the following definitions to classify whether a public assembly is political in nature. Readers should be aware that researchers classify each public assembly as political or non-political primarily by reference to the available public event notices issued by the Hong Kong Police Force. As a result, the classification may not fully reflect the actual nature, context, or intent of the assembly.

Political public assembly refers to any gathering of individuals in a public space whose primary purpose is to express views, demands, or positions relating to public affairs. This includes matters of law, public policy, governance, elections, state identity, or the actions of state institutions. An assembly is classified as political when it seeks to influence, support, or oppose the exercise of public power, the conduct of political actors, or the functioning of electoral or governmental processes, whether the issues addressed pertain to Hong Kong, China, or foreign jurisdictions.

Non-political public assembly refers to any gathering of individuals in a public space whose primary purpose is not to express views, demands, or positions relating to public affairs. This includes assemblies that do not seek to influence, support, or oppose laws, public policy, governance, elections, state identity, or the actions of state institutions or political actors.

Non-political public assemblies may serve social, cultural, religious, recreational, commercial, educational, charitable, or personal purposes. They may involve expressions of opinion, identity, or advocacy, provided such expression does not aim to influence the exercise of public power or the functioning of governmental or electoral processes.

This database has been collecting public event notifications submitted under the Public Order Ordinance since August 2023. The most recent update was on 31 December 2025, and it will continue to be updated on a monthly basis.

If you have any comments on this database, or if you identify any errors or inaccuracies in the information, you are welcome to contact us by email at database@hkchr.org.