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 reveller dressed up as Austrian drag queen and 2014 Eurovision song contest winner Conchita Wurst takes part in New Year's celebrations in Coin, near Malaga, southern Spain, early January 1, 2015. Villagers and revellers dressed up in funny costumes to take part in the New Year's celebration. (Photo by Jon Nazca/Reuters)

Locals dress up as Mazcaras to celebrate Entroido on February 21, 2023 in A Xironda, Spain. Entroido is an ancient rural carnival celebrated in Galicia during the previous days of Ash Wednesday. Each town has its traditional characters and costumes. In the small village of A Xironda, locals dress up as Mazcaras with their characteristic masks, cowbells at the waist and whips, and then run through the streets. (Photo by Brais Seara Fernandez/Getty Images)

A mannequin's head is covered in a woman dress shop in Kabul, Afghanistan, Monday, December 26, 2022. Under the Taliban, the mannequins in women's dress shops across the Afghan capital Kabul are a haunting sight, their heads cloaked in cloth sacks or wrapped in black plastic bags. The hooded mannequins are one symbol of the Taliban's puritanical rule over Afghanistan. (Photo by Ebrahim Noroozi/AP Photo)

Roxy, Bono and Blue in costumes inspired by Tim Burton's films in Sonoma County, California, 2014. As Halloween draws closer even pugs are dressing up in costumes. But these outfits are unlikely to give anyone nightmares and are more cute than creepy. Philip Lauer, from California, has dressed his three pets Bono, Blue and Roxy, in adorable costumes – with witch hats and black capes. His home in Sonoma County, California, has its own studio to take professional pictures of the posing pups. Every year he and wife wife Sue dress their pets in creepy costumes and send pictures of them to their friends and family as a spooky treat. (Photo by Phillip Lauer/Barcroft Media)

A girl sits on her boat at a Bak Angrout dried up pond at the drought-hit Kandal province in Cambodia May 13, 2016. (Photo by Samrang Pring/Reuters)

Visitors observe the sculpture “That Girl” by U.S. artist Paul McCarthy, at the Hyperrealist Sculpture 1973-2016 exhibition in the Museum of Bellas Artes in Bilbao, northern Spain, July 27, 2016. (Photo by Vincent West/Reuters)

An indigenous girl carries a monkey inside her house in their village at Xingu national park in Mato Grosso, Brazil, October 2, 2015. The Kamayura tribe consists of around 300 people, and is one of the 16 ethnic groups living in the indigenous Xingu national park. (Photo by Paulo Whitaker/Reuters)