Hooded demonstrators vandalise a shop window in Mexico City, during the commemoration of the 50th anniversary of the 1968 Tlatelolco student massacre, on October 2, 2018. Fifty years ago, Mexican troops opened fire on student demonstrators, killing hundreds just days before Mexico City hosted the 1968 Olympics – one of the darkest episodes in a year of global turbulence. (Photo by Ronaldo Schemidt/AFP Photo)

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)

An American white pelican takes flight on the island of Petatan in the municipality of Cojumatlan de Regules, Michoacan state, Mexico on February 23, 2024. The island becomes home to the pelicans during the winter, when they travel from the north of the United States and the south of Canada to the warmer waters of Lake Chapala in Mexico. The birds are a tourist attraction and people gather on the island's boardwalk to feed them and watch them fly. (Photo by Enrique Castro/AFP Photo)

A woman is pictured in the municipality of Iztapalapa as the outbreak of the coronavirus continues in Mexico City on May 27, 2020. (Photo by Carlos Jasso/Reuters)

Esther Abad free diving in Cenote Chukum, in the Yucatan peninsula in Mexico on June 13, 2022. (Photo by Wojciech Dopierala/Mercury Press)

Women perform a pole dancing routine during the national day celebration of “Urban Pole” dance along a street in Monterrey, Mexico, on June 9, 2013. (Photo by Daniel Becerril/Reuters)

A dog trainer works with a previously abandoned dog at a police centre in Saltillo, Mexico March 4, 2016. Stray dogs are adopted by the police from a municipal anti-rabies centre and then trained to help the police patrol the streets, and search for drugs, explosives and weapons. (Photo by Daniel Becerril/Reuters)

Students pose for a pictures taken by their friends during spring break on the beach in the resort city of Cancun, Mexico, February 27, 2009. (Photo by Israel Leal/AP Photo)