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)

An Indian girl dressed in traditional attire reacts to camera as she watches a cultural performance during Lohri festival in Jammu, India, Monday, January 13, 2014. Lohri is a celebration of the winter solstice observed by Hindus and Sikhs in northern India. (Photo by Channi Anand/AP Photo)

In this September 10, 2016 picture, a girl takes pictures of a fellow contestant while warming up backstage before competing in the Romania Miss Pole Dance Contest, ahead of the finals of the Pole Sport&Fitness World Championship 2016 in Bucharest, Romania. (Photo by Vadim Ghirda/AP Photo)

Airmen and their Japanese dates “do” the town together, visiting the local points of interest. Almost every community in Japan has it's famous shrines and parks. Tachikawa boasts beautiful environment. Girls are wearing western dress, May 1952. (Photo by National Archives and Records Administration)

A girl has her helmet adjusted on the top of a tank during the Children's Day celebration at a military facility in Bangkok, Thailand January 9, 2016. Army barracks opened their doors to children to interact with their weapons and vehicles as part of the celebration. (Photo by Jorge Silva/Reuters)

A 3-month-old ethnic Tujia baby girl is pictured next to her father as they wait for a traditional ethnic Tujia wedding feast during celebrations marking the Lunar New Year in Ziqiu town, Changyang county of China’s Hubei province, February 15, 2016. (Photo by Jason Lee/Reuters)

A girl collects drinking water at Dala river outside Yangon, Myanmar March 3, 2016. Some 650 million people, or one in 10 of the world's population, have no access to safe water, putting them at risk of infectious diseases and premature death. Dirty water and poor sanitation can cause severe diarrhoeal diseases in children, killing 900 under-five a day across the world, according to United Nations estimates. (Photo by Soe Zeya Tun/Reuters)

A girl calls to her mom as she stands near a dead whale on the shore Monday morning, April 25, 2016, on the cobblestone beach at Lower Trestles on San Onofre State Beach, just south of San Clemente, Calif. (Photo by Jeff Gritchen/The Orange County Register via AP Photo)