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)

In this Thursday, May 16, 2013 file photo, Finland's Krista Siegfrids, second right, kisses a dancer as she performs her song “Marry Me” during the second semifinal of the Eurovision Song Contest at the Malmo Arena in Malmo, Sweden. That was the first girl-on-girl kiss in the history of the annual competition. Previously, organizers had sought to prevent similar embraces citing the competition's status as a family event. (Photo by Alastair Grant/AP Photo)

A woman reacts after she mades a wreath of flowers during the celebrations of the Kupala night in Pyrohiv, near Kiev, on July 6, 2021. During the celebration, an ancient slavic ritual related to the summer solstice, people wear wreaths, jump over fires and bathe naked in rivers and lakes. (Photo by Sergei Supinsky/AFP Photo)

Family members mourn the passing of Manuela Chavez, who died from symptoms related to the new coronavirus at the age of 88, as a government team prepares to remove her body from inside her home, in the Shipibo Indigenous community of Pucallpa, in Peru's Ucayali region, Monday, August 31, 2020. While the lucky are cured with ancestral ailments, the less fortunate often die at home. A government team travels from one spartan, thatch-roofed home to the next, removing the dead from their homes where they took their last breaths. (Photo by Rodrigo Abd/AP Photo)

A restaurant worker wearing a mask cleans the windows as the restaurant reopens amid the COVID-19 pandemic in Sao Paulo, Brazil, Monday, July 6, 2020. Bars, restaurants and beauty salons were allowed to re-open Monday after over three months of quarantine, and are required to observe preventative measures and reduced operating hours only during the day. (Photo by Andre Penner/AP Photo)

Swimmers known as the Lido Ladies pose by the pool during sunrise at Charlton Lido in Hornfair Park, London on December 2, 2020, on its first day of reopening after the second national lockdown ended and England enters a strengthened tiered system of regional coronavirus restrictions. (Photo by Victoria Jones/PA Images via Getty Images)

Women dance on top of a car as revelers enjoy spring break festivities despite an 8pm curfew imposed by local authorities, amid the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) pandemic, in Miami Beach, Florida, U.S., March 20, 2021. (Photo by Marco Bello/Reuters)

Demonstrators march in Port-au-Prince on February 14, 2021, to protest against the government of President Jovenel Moise. Several thousand people demonstrated Sunday in the Haitian capital Port-au-Prince, saying the government was trying to establish a new dictatorship and denouncing international support for President Jovenel Moise. The protests were mostly peaceful, although a few clashes broke out between some demonstrators and police, who fired tear gas and rubber bullets. (Photo by Valerie Baeriswyl/AFP Photo)