As part of FLAIR Melbourne – a Flinders Lane art festival – Melbourne’s Lisa Minogue presents stylised photographic portraits of Australian women of colour, their faces painted vibrantly to accentuate their individuality and encourage the viewer to study each face more closely. Minogue asked each woman the same question: “What do the words “coloured girl” mean to you?”. (Photo by Lisa Minogue/The Guardian)

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 motorway bridge crosses the icy Hunhe River in Shenyang, China on December 12, 2019. (Photo by Costfoto/Barcroft Media)

Afghans pass a clothing storein Kabul, Afghanistan, Tuesday, October 12, 2021. (Photo by Ahmad Halabisaz/AP Photo)

A vendor sleeps as his son waits for customers at their roadside vegetable shop in New Delhi, February 12, 2019. (Photo by Adnan Abidi/Reuters)

Labourers unload gravel from a boat docked in Dala township, opposite Yangon city, Myanmar, November 12, 2015. (Photo by Olivia Harris/Reuters)

A woman plays with a kitten inside of a line house in downtown Shanghai April 12, 2015. (Photo by Carlos Barria/Reuters)

Children of Indian laborers play on make-shift swings in Amritsar, India, May 12, 2015. (Photo by Narinder Nanu/AFP Photo)