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 girl holds a blossom in her mouth while posing for photos under cherry blossom trees at Wuhan University on March 11, 2021 in Wuhan, China. Tourists come to view cherry blossoms at the university during the spring. Wuhan University, first founded in 1893, is widely known as one of the most beautiful universities in China. (Photo by Getty Images/China Stringer Network)

Everton fan and legendary fashion photographer Matt Lever has captured the dizzying drama behind the scenes at catwalk shows since 1999. Here: Balmain, Spring/Summer 2011. (Photo by Matt Lever)

In this photo taken June 3, 2009, a female North Korean soldier looks out from behind a barbed-wire fence around a camp on the North Korean river banks across from Hekou, northeastern China's Liaoning province. North Korea's top court has convicted two U.S. journalists, and sentenced them to 12 years in labor prison, the country's state news agency reported Monday. (Photo by Ng Han Guan/AP Photo)

Peasants celebrate a traditional festival “Corpus Cristhi” since the time of the conquest, in Anolaima in the department of Cundinamarca, Colombia on June 29, 2022. Peasants collect all kinds of fruits and assemble great representative figures in gratitude to God for this festival. (Photo by Yair Suarez/Anadolu Agency via Getty Images)

Rwandan refugees cross the Rusumo border to Tanzania from Rwanda carrying their belongings, goats, mattresses and cows, May 30, 1994. The bloodshed that claimed 800,000 Tutsi and moderate Hutu lives began 25 years ago on April 7, 1994, when a plane carrying Rwandan President Juvenal Habyarimana, Burundi President Cyprien Ntaryamira and a French air crew was shot down. (Photo by Jeremiah Kamau/Reuters)

Going toe-to-toe, these fighting primates could give Floyd Mayweather a run for his money. The amazing images – captured by Australian tourist Julie Rathbone on the banks of the Zambezi river in Africa – show the pair engaging in a few fisticuffs. The Chacma baboons appeared to settle a disagreement by fighting – before a senior baboon plays referee and steps in to break it up. Nurse unit manager Julie Rathbone, 59, from New South Wales, was on a cruise down the river when she spotted the fracas unfolding. (Photo by Julie Rathbone/Caters News)

“A Balinese man shows off his pride and joy, a fighting cock, while on a cigarette break after a morning’s work in nearby fields”. (Photo by Coltrane Koh/The Guardian)