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)

A boy plays on the glass at Thailand's first skywalk in Bangkok, Thailand on November 18, 2018. (Photo by Soe Zeya Tun/Reuters)

Pro-democracy protesters dressed in traditional Thai costumes take part in an anti-government rally in Bangkok on October 14, 2020. (Photo by Jack Taylor/AFP Photo)

A homeless man sleeps against a wall adorned with a mural featuring a Shipibo Indigenous girl and Amazon rainforest animals, in Pucallpa, in Peru's Ucayali region, Wednesday, September 2, 2020. Peru is home to one of Latin America's largest Indigenous populations, whose ancestors lived in the Andean country before the arrival of Spanish colonists. (Photo by Rodrigo Abd/AP Photo)

A brilliant sunset makes for a fun silhouette picture by jumping between sand bars at Shi Shi Beach on the Olympic Peninsula Friday July 17, 2015. (Photo by Bettina Hansen/The Seattle Times)

In this photo taken late Thursday, May 7, 2015, a prison guard, left, and seated inmates cast shadows on a wall while waiting for the beginning of a rock concert by Romanian band Pro Musica, inside the Popa Sapca jail in Timisoara, western Romania. (Photo by Adi Piclisan/AP Photo)

Traffic police stand at the side of a road in Pyongyang on November 25, 2016. (Photo by Ed Jones/AFP Photo)

Akram Abu al-Foz places a painted empty shell on top of a Christmas tree he decorated from empty shells he collected in the rebel held besieged city of Douma, in the eastern Damascus suburb of Ghouta, Syria December 23, 2016. (Photo by Bassam Khabieh/Reuters)