A gilrl plays games in a shopping mall in Beijing, China, 24 November 2021. Demographers in China have called for more efficient implementation of supportive measures to encourage births to address the country's dwindling population growth as country's birthrate last year was 8.52 births per thousand people, the lowest level since 1978, according China Statistical Yearbook 2021. (Photo by Wu Hong/EPA/EFE)

A man transports the carcass of a car on a two- wheeled carriage in a neighborhood in Abobo, a suburb of Abidjan, Côte d’Ivoire on December 1, 2017. (Photo by Issouf Sanogo/AFP Photo)

A woman walks at the Boulevard of the River the eve of the International Women's Day, in Cali, Colombia, 07 March 2019. (Photo by Ernesto Guzman Jr./EPA/EFE)

A woman tries to catch snowflakes with her tongue during a snowfall on Chandragiri Hills in Kathmandu, Nepal on January 23, 2019. (Photo by Navesh Chitrakar/Reuters)

Spectators pass through security screening ahead of the New Year's Eve celebration in Times Square in New York, on Sunday, December 31, 2017. (Photo by Peter Morgan/AP Photo)

Actors dressed up as zombies walk around while posing for photos with passers-by in New York's Times Square on Friday, October 10, 2014 as a promotion for the season premiere of AMC's “The Walking Dead” this Sunday, October 12, 2014. (Photo by Gordon Donovan)

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)