Guatemala City, November 26 (teleSUR-RHC)-- The UN-backed International Commission Against Impunity in Guatemala (CICIG) announced on Tuesday it will host a series of discussions early next year to strengthen and reform the Guatemalan legal system.

The meeting will be attended by academics, representatives from research centers and social organizations, judicial operators, deputies and government authorities.

The announcement also coincided with Guatemalan congress approval of 13 Supreme Court and 126 appeal court judges amid strong criticism by civil society groups.

Civil society organizations, including CICIG, tried to block the elections based on the grounds that the nomination process lacked transparency and suffered from political interference.

The Constitutional Court had suspended the induction of the newly elected judges last October in order to evaluate the complaints registered by civil society groups against the election process, which took place at the end of September.

However, last week the Guatemalan Constitutional Court issued a final ruling rejecting the legal appeal claims.

Despite the most recent setback, a 2013 CICIG report found that Impunity in Guatemala had fallen from 93 percent to 70 percent over the course of six years.