As the world marks the International Day of the Girl Child, women's rights activists point to progress on a wide array of issues but say more needs to be done to protect girls from child marriage, sexual assault and other forms of exploitation. Here is a selection of pictures showing the daily lives of girls across the globe, all taken by female Associated Press photojournalists. Here: In this December 14, 2015, file photo, a young clown rides in the back of a car following a procession to the Basilica of Our Lady of Guadalupe in Mexico City. Hundreds belonging to various clown associations made their annual pilgrimage to the Basilica to pay their respects to the Virgin of Guadalupe, Mexico's patron saint. (Photo by Rebecca Blackwell/AP Photo)

A student from the General Yermolov Cadet School performs with models of swords during celebrations of Maslenitsa, or Pancake Week, a pagan holiday marking the end of winter, in southern city of Stavropol, Russia, March 6, 2019. (Photo by Eduard Korniyenko/Reuters)

Svetlana Tseyko feeds a 10-month-old moose named Grisha in the courtyard in the village of Abramy, some 160 km northwest of Minsk, on February 21, 2017. (Photo by Sergei Gapon/AFP Photo)

Dave Woods, 47, waits on an overpass in support for trucks driving in a convoy bound for the nation's capital to protest against coronavirus disease (COVID-19) vaccine mandates, in Wabash Township, Illinois, U.S. March 1, 2022. (Photo by Cheney Orr/Reuters)

Women wearing historical costumes walk past a tank before a rehearsal for the Victory Day parade, which marks the anniversary of the victory over Nazi Germany in World War Two, in Saint Petersburg, Russia on April 28, 2022. (Photo by Anton Vaganov/Reuters)

Visitors look at photographs in the exhibition “Lisette Model Street Life e Horst P. Horst Syle and Glamour” at the art gallery “Camera – Centro Italiano per la fotografia” in Turin, Italy, 27 April 2021. Culture venues reopened to the public as several Italian region are back to COVID-19 yellow zone in the country's tier system. (Photo by Alessandro di Marco/EPA/EFE)

Cuban actor Ana de Armas seen attending Bond: No Time To Die – world film premiere afterparties on September 28, 2021 in London, England. (Photo by Backgrid USA)

Sharafkhaneh port and lake Urmia. Masoud Ghadiri (Iran). The summer Milky Way is very prominent in this photo. On the galaxy zone, Saturn is located besides the Lagoon nebula. On the right of the horizon, you can see the extreme light pollution of Urmia, which is caused by ever-increasing city development. (Photo by Masoud Ghadiri/National Maritime Museum)