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)

Russian soldiers run along Red Square in central Moscow on September 29, 2022, as the square is sealed prior to a ceremony of the incorporation of the new territories into Russia. Russia will formally annex four territories of Ukraine its troops occupy at a grand ceremony in Moscow on Friday, the Kremlin has announced, after Russia suggested it could to use nuclear weapons to defend the territories. (Photo by Alexander Nemenov/AFP Photo)

An Orthodox Jew child from Israel yells as other members of the community protest at a government facility where they are being held after being detained last Sunday during an operation by agents of the National Institute of Migration (INM), in Huixtla, Chiapas state, Mexico on September 28, 2022. (Photo by Jose Torres/Reuters)

A girl peers from between light decorations at a Christmas fair which opened ahead of the holiday season in Bucharest, Romania, Friday, November 25, 2022. Municipal authorities in the Romanian capital, quoted by local media, stated that holiday season city light decoration levels will remain at last year's level and use energy saving solutions. (Photo by Vadim Ghirda/AP Photo)

Nubian women sell traditional handicrafts at the Nubian Gharb Suheil village, near Aswan south of Egypt, October 1, 2015. For half a century, Egypt's Nubians have patiently lobbied the government in Cairo for a return to their homelands on the banks of the upper Nile, desperate to reclaim territory their ancestors first cultivated 3,000 years ago. (Photo by Mohamed Abd El Ghany/Reuters)

People at a Czech Stop look at a cloud of smoke rising from the explosion in West, Texas, April 17, 2013. (Photo by Andy Bartee via Dallas Morning News/MCT)

In this December 23, 2013 photo, Indian army soldiers patrol near one of their forward post at the Line of Control (LOC), that divides Kashmir between India and Pakistan, at Krishna Ghati (KG Sector) in Poonch, 290 kilometers (180 miles) from Jammu, India. The military commanders of longtime rivals India and Pakistan met on Tuesday in a bid to stop frequent cross-border attacks in disputed Kashmir which escalated tensions in the region in recent months. (Photo by Channi Anand/AP Photo)

For more than 2,000 years, women from the Baiga tribe in the highland district of Dindori, in central India’s Madhya Pradesh state, have been tattooed. Sumintra, 25, from Bona village, has the markings across her forehead, legs and arms. The women who work as tattoo artists are knowledgable about the different types of designs and pigments preferred by various tribes, and their meanings are passed to them by their mothers. The tattooing ‘season’ begins with the approach of winter. (Photo by Ronny Sen/WaterAid/The Guardian)