Two girls run through the heavy rain as people head out to Wind Street in Swansea, Wales to celebrate Halloween on Monday, October 31, 2022. (Photo by Robert Melen)

The Taipei first girls high school marching band perform at the 134th rose parade in Pasadena, California on January 2, 2023. (Photo by Michael Owen Baker/AP Photo)

School girls hold hands while looking out at the Indian Ocean at Galle Face beach in Colombo on December 9, 2022. (Photo by Ishara S. Kodikara/AFP Photo)

Footages of virtual girl group MAVE is played at the control room of MBC in Seoul, South Korea on February 28, 2023. (Photo by Kim Soo-hyeon/Reuters)

A girl plays with water as she celebrates the Songkran holiday which marks the Thai New Year in Bangkok, Thailand on April 13, 2023. (Photo by Chalinee Thirasupa/Reuters)

A girl splashes water over a boy amidst soaring temperatures at the Shati camp for Palestinian refugees in Gaza City on July 17, 2023. (Photo by Mohammed Abed/AFP Photo)

A girl looks with comic disgust at a guy who falls asleep with a bottle of beer at a party; her friend laughs. (Photo by Edward Corbett/Rex Features/Shutterstock)

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)