A/HRC/45/21 and the United Nations Population Fund, the Regional Office co-facilitated workshops on gender equality and the application of a human rights-based approach by country teams in Bangladesh, China, Indonesia, Malaysia and Viet Nam. Workshops included sessions on the operationalization of the “leave no one behind” principle. In October 2019, the Regional Office brought together national human rights institutions from South-East Asia, South Asia and Mongolia for a first-ever dialogue on the transboundary impact of climate change on human rights. The dialogue aimed at enhancing subregional cooperation and solidarity for development. 32. In September 2019, the OHCHR office in Seoul presented the report The Price is Rights: The Violation of the Right to an Adequate Standard of Living in the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea at a forum on human rights39 organized by the National Human Rights Commission of Korea. It analysed the legal, institutional and policy reforms required to fulfil economic and social rights’ obligations and realize the right to development. In December 2019, the OHCHR office in Seoul presented a paper examining the implications of the right to development for the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea, including interlinkages with peace and development in the Korean Peninsula at the ninth annual Chaillot Forum organized by the Korea Institute for National Unification. III. Analysis of the implementation of the right to development and existing challenges 33. For the millions of girls, boys, women and men living in least developed countries, development is one of the most urgent human rights imperatives. Development is a human right for all individuals and peoples and not only an equivalent of economic growth. In the Declaration on the Right to Development, development is described as “a comprehensive economic, social, cultural and political process, which aims at the constant improvement of the well-being of the entire population and of all individuals on the basis of their active, free and meaningful participation in development and in the fair distribution of benefits”. Furthermore, “the right to development is an inalienable human right by virtue of which every human person and all peoples are entitled to participate in, contribute to, and enjoy economic, social, cultural and political development, in which all human rights and fundamental freedoms can be fully realized” (art. 1 (1) of the Declaration). Equality of opportunity for development is a prerogative of both nations and individuals. 34. In order to realize the right to development, States have obligations at three levels: collectively in global and regional partnerships; individually as they adopt and implement policies that affect persons not strictly within their jurisdiction; and individually as they formulate national development policies and programmes affecting persons within their jurisdiction.40 The Programme of Action for the Least Developed Countries for the Decade 2011–2020 includes references to similar levels of commitments, as it lists priority areas and respective actions by: joint actions and renewed and strengthened partnership for development; development partners; and the least developed countries. 41 35. As a contribution to the Fifth United Nations Conference on the Least Developed Countries, this section focuses on challenges to the implementation of the right to development in the least developed countries. It also considers challenges emanating from the COVID-19 pandemic. A. Challenges to the realization of the right to development in the least developed countries 36. The least developed countries are low-income countries facing the most severe structural impediments to sustainable development. 42 The Committee for Development 39 40 41 42 8 www.ohchr.org/Documents/Countries/KP/ThePriceIsRights_EN.pdf. A/HRC/15/WG.2/TF/2/Add.2, annex. A/CONF.219/3/Rev.1, sects. III–IV. E/2020/33, para. 3.