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)

Christmas party goers seen on December 14, 2018 in Liverpool, United Kingdom. Revellers hit the bars as they partied hard on the second-to-last Friday before Christmas. (Photo by Mercury Press)

In this April 14, 2014 file photo, Hamamatou Harouna, 10, who lost the use of her legs to polio, crawls to the restroom on the grounds of the Catholic Church where she and hundreds of others found refuge after fleeing violence in her village, in Carnot, Central African Republic. Health authorities on Tuesday, August 25, 2020 are expected to declare the African continent free of the wild poliovirus after decades of effort, though cases of vaccine-derived polio are still sparking outbreaks of the paralyzing disease in more than a dozen countries. (Photo by Jerome Delay/AP Photo/File)

A woman looks at artwork called “Alphabetti Spaghetti” by British sculptor Alex Chinneck, one of a series of “knotted” postboxes, installed as part of a public art trail for Kensington & Chelsea Art Week on October 3, 2020. (Photo by Victoria Jones/PA Images via Getty Images)

A bronze statue of late singer Ella Fitzgerald is seen wearing a hat and protective face mask, as the global outbreak of the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) continues, outside the Metro-North Railroad Station Plaza in Yonkers, New York, U.S., November 17, 2020. (Photo by Shannon Stapleton/Reuters)

Lightning strikes above Perch Rock Lighthouse in Merseyside, North West England on August 10, 2020. (Photo by Bav Media/The Sun)

A cyclist rides the path around Lake Harriet on Memorial Day in Minneapolis on Monday, May 25, 2020. The area around the Lake Harriet Bandshell was busy but not crowded on Memorial Day evening. (Photo by Jeff Wheeler/Star Tribune via AP Photo)

Waitresses wearing protective masks, face-shields and gloves to prevent infections following the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) outbreak, gesture to customers toasting glasses at the cheerleader-themed restaurant “Cheers One” in Tokyo, Japan on May 11, 2020. (Photo by Kim Kyung-Hoon/Reuters)