People run away as a building is toppled during a controlled demolition as part of an urban transformation in Ankara, Turkey, February 3, 2014. (Photo by Serap Doganyigit/Reuters)

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)

Revellers attend the Saint Patrick's Day parade on March 17, 2019 in Dublin, Ireland. Saint Patrick, the patron saint of Ireland is celebrated around the world on St. Patrick's Day. According to legend Saint Patrick used the three-leaved shamrock to explain the Holy Trinity to Irish pagans in the 5th-century after becoming a Christian missionary. (Photo by Charles McQuillan/Getty Images)

An Iraqi woman attends a festival commemorating the International Day of Peace in Baghdad, September 21, 2015. (Photo by Thaier al-Sudani/Reuters)

A woman pours alcohol from the bottle into her mouth at the Far Hills Race Day at Moorland Farms in Far Hills, New Jersey, October 17, 2015. Young locals in New Jersey catch up with friends from school and college days at the Far Hills Race Day, which started as a fox-hunting event in the early 1900s. Many racegoers first went to the Hunt, as it's known locally, as children, but nowadays it's an alcohol-fuelled party for them. Makeshift bars are set up in cars, with the horses' efforts on the turf sometimes a backdrop to the main event. (Photo by Stephanie Keith/Reuters)

A combination photograph shows revelers dressed in "Dia de Muertos" or "Day of the Dead" themes as they pose for photos while taking part in the Greenwich Village Halloween Parade in the Manhattan borough of New York October 31, 2015. (Photo by Carlo Allegri/Reuters)

A musician plays his violin next to a depiction of La Santa Muerte (Saint Death) at a shrine during Day of the Dead celebrations in Ciudad Juarez, Mexico, November 2, 2015. (Photo by Jose Luis Gonzalez/Reuters)

Skulls placed on the floor are seen during a ceremony held for the "Dia de las natitas" (Day of the Skull) celebrations at the General Cemetery of La Paz, November 8, 2015. Bolivians, who keep close relatives skulls at home as a macabre talisman, flock to the cemetery chapel once a year to have the craniums blessed and to bring themselves good luck in the future. (Photo by David Mercado/Reuters)