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)

Principal of the Royal Ballet, Natalia Osipova, performs outside the Edinburgh International Conference Centre in Edinburgh, England on November 21, 2018, where she is starring in the new contemporary ballet “The Mother”. (PHoto by Jane Barlow/PA Wire via ZUMA Press)

A brushtail possum whose ears and legs have been burnt from recent bushfires sits in a cage before being transported to a wildlife hospital, in Batemans Bay, South of Sydney, Australia, 14 January 2020. (Photo by Steven Saphore/EPA/EFE)

Milena Jami whips her llama to win the first place in the a race for children of ages seven and eight at the Llanganates National Park, Ecuador, Saturday, February 8, 2020. Wooly llamas, an animal emblematic of the Andean mountains in South America, become the star for a day each year when Ecuadoreans dress up their prized animals for children to ride them in 500-meter races. (Photo by Dolores Ochoa/AP Photo)

Medical staff in Belgrade, Serbia on February 5, 2021. Vaccination of employees in the city's social protection institutions has begun at the Belgrade Fair, who have expressed interest in receiving the Russian Sputnik V vaccine, and according to the city secretary for social protection Natasa Stanisavljevic, about 150 employees in those institutions will receive the vaccine today and tomorrow. (Photo by Zoran Zestic/Tanjug)

Artists wearing face shields perform during a ceremony held by the Bangkok National Museum to celebrate the return of two ancient relics, believed to have been stolen from Thailand about 60 years ago, from the United States, in Bangkok, Thailand on May 31, 2021. (Photo by Soe Zeya Tun/Reuters)

Military Personnel sing and dance during celebrations for Independence Day in Dakar on April 4, 2022. Senegal Celebrates its sixty second Independence Day after gaining independence from France in 1960. (Photo by John Wessels/AFP Photo)

Jalokun Nifemi, wearing an outfit made from recycled newspapers, waits back stage before a “trashion show” in Sangotedo Lagos, Nigeria, Saturday, November 19, 2022. (Photo by Sunday Alamba/AP Photo)