People see in the new year at Copacabana beach in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil on January 1, 2024. (Photo by Reuters/Stringer)

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)

Jakub Przygonski at the stage 1 of Dakar Rally, Pisco, Peru on January 7, 2019. (Photo by Kin Marcin/Red Bull Content Pool)

Miley Cyrus performs at the Radio 1 Big Weekend at Stewart Park on May 25, 2019 in Middlesbrough, England. (Photo by Jo Hale/Redferns)

Two sheep fight in a competition in Zhangjiakou, Hebei province, China on August 1, 2017. (Photo by Reuters/China Stringer Network)

A woman sells vegetables near a Metro train station in downtown Lima, Peru December 1, 2015. (Photo by Mariana Bazo/Reuters)

Revellers celebrate New Year's Day in central Moscow, Russia, January 1, 2016. (Photo by Tatyana Makeyeva/Reuters)

Internally displaced Syrian children play inside a refugee camp in the Hama countryside, Syria January 1, 2016. (Photo by Ammar Abdullah/Reuters)