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 dog dressed up for a show sits backstage during the 16th annual New York Pet Fashion Show on February 7, 2019 in New York City. (Photo by Johannes Eisele/AFP Photo)

Jose Sabas Gomez pastes eyelashes to a statue of El Jesus Nazareno in his workshop in Apastepeque, El Salvador March 9, 2016. Sabas is one of a small number of artists still working on traditional religious art in El Salvador. According to him, there used to be more workshops engaged in the work of restoring statues of saints, but only four remain today as the labor-intensive craft is no longer a popular choice of profession. (Photo by Jose Cabezas/Reuters)

Girls play in the makeshift refugee camp at the northern Greek border point of Idomeni, Greece, Thursday, March 17, 2016. Leaders of the EU's 28 divided nations reconvene in Brussels in hopes of ironing out disagreements on a proposed agreement with Turkey in the migrants crisis. (Photo by Vadim Ghirda/AP Photo)

Tourists kissing front of Malaysia's landmark Petronas Twin Towers with lights on before turned off to mark Earth Hour 2016 in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, 19 March 2016. Earth Hour takes place worldwide at 8.30 p.m. local time and is a global call to turn off lights for 60 minutes to raise awareness of the danger of global climatic change (Photo by Fazry Ismail/EPA)

Iraqi Kurdish female fighter Haseba Nauzad looks through a pair of binoculars during a deployment near the frontline of the fight against Islamic State militants in Nawaran near Mosul, Iraq, April 20, 2016. (Photo by Ahmed Jadallah/Reuters)

A woman selling souvenirs walks through Kuta beach in Bali June 5, 2008. Indonesia is expected to report tourist arrivals in December this week. (Photo by Murdani Usman/Reuters)

A Palestinian girl wearing a protective face mask looks on as she sits in a box on the back of a bicycle amid the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) crisis, in Gaza City on September 27, 2020. (Photo by Mohammed Salem/Reuters)