This Act was passed in response to the Congress of the People, held at Kliptown, near Johannesburg, in June 1955. Following a call from the African National Congress (ANC), the South African Indian Congress, the South African Coloured People's Congress, the South African Congress of Democrats, and the South African Congress of Trade Unions, some 3,000 people met with the purpose of adopting the Freedom Charter. The Riotous Assemblies Act of 1956 was also used in the prosecution of the Treason Trial, the judicial outcome of the gathering having replaced Riotous Assemblies and Suppression of Communism Amendment Act, 1954.
