A group of dust covered child labourers gather for a portrait in the brick kiln in Kathmandu Valley, Nepal, 22 February 2015. Bleak photos identify the children working their fingers to the bone in Nepalís brick kilns. Photographer Jan Mˆller Hansen documented the conditions of the brick kilns in Kathmandu Valley, Nepal between 2013 and 2016 while he lived and worked in the area. Jan estimates between 150,000 and 175,000 people are employed in the 200 brick kilns littering the Kathmandu Valley. (Photo by Jan Moeller Hansen/Barcroft Images)

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 bomb-laden Su-25 jet at the Hmeimim air base in December 2015. Russia's lease agreement obliged Assad’s military to safeguard the perimeter of the Hmeimim base, while giving Moscow legal jurisdiction over the facilities inside. Negotiating perimeter protection from Syria’s new rulers will be vital for the Russian bases in an era of wire-controlled drones immune to jamming. (Photo by AP Photo)

Dismaland is a temporary art project organized by street artist Banksy, constructed in the seaside resort town of Weston-super-Mare in Somerset, England.The secretive pop-up exhibition at the Tropicana, a disused lido, is "a sinister twist on Disneyland" that opened during the weekend of 21 August 2015. Banksy has described it as a "family theme park unsuitable for children".

Students from Langata primary school run past riot police as they protest against a perimeter wall illegally erected by a private developer around their school playground in Kenya's capital Nairobi January 19, 2015. Riot police used teargas to disperse students at a school in Nairobi as the children protested against the potential loss of their playground. The playground was fenced off in December, during the school holidays, by a prominent developer who also claims ownership of the land. The title to the contested site is said to be in the name of Airport View Housing Limited, according to local media, with plans to use the space to build a parking lot for a hotel. (Photo by Thomas Mukoya/Reuters)

Bolivia's president Evo Morales holds his scared staffs of power during a blessing by Aymaran spiritual guides, in a traditional ceremony at the archeological site Tiwanaku, Bolivia, Wednesday, January 21, 2015. Morales is set to begin a new term Thursday, that will make him the Andean nation's longest-serving leader, riding high on a wave of unprecedented growth and stability. (Photo by Juan Karita/AP Photo)

A bird is cleaned at the International Bird Rescue in Fairfield, California January 20, 2015. A gooey, unknown material discovered on the eastern shores of San Francisco Bay is clinging to the feathers of birds, and more than 100 birds, mostly species of oceangoing, diving ducks, have died after their feathers were fouled by the viscous substance now undergoing testing at state labs in Sacramento. (Photo by Robert Galbraith/Reuters)

A follower shows a ring of La Santa Muerte (The Saint of Death), a cult figure often depicted as a skeletal grim reaper, near at the saint's altar at Tepito neighborhood, in Mexico City January 1, 2015. Followers gather at the saint's altar at the start of the new year to leave offerings of apples, flowers, cigarettes, coloured candles and tequila to thank the saint for favours that have been granted and to ask for new ones in the new year. (Photo by Edgard Garrido/Reuters)