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 man carries a child in a wheelbarrow near a burning tire barricade in the framework of the protests of the last three days due to the increase in fuel prices, in Port-au-Prince, Haiti, 09 July 2018. Haiti was today practically paralyzed by a transport strike after three days of violent riots due to an increase in fuel prices, which the Government left without effect shortly after the announcement. The Prime Minister, Jack Guy Lafontant, today heads a meeting with representatives of Parliament to assess the situation created after the violent protests, which have left at least three dead and several injured. (Photo by Jean Marc Hervé Abelard/EPA/EFE)

Masked guests attend the “Grand Bal Christian Dior” during the Haute Couture Spring-Summer 2018 fashion collection presented in Paris, Monday, January 22, 2018. (Photo by Kamil Zihnioglu/AP Photo)

Food affected villagers cross flood waters through a bamboo bridge in the flood affected Morigaon district of Assam state, India, 05 July 2016. Continuous rain since last couple of days inundated six districts of Assam effecting more than 100 thousand people in the second wave of floods in Assam state. (Photo by EPA/Stringer)

N.C. Dezendorf, wife of the general manager of the Electro-Motive division of General Motors, christens the new lightweight “Aerotrain” at the company's locomotive works in La Grange, Ill. on August 22, 1955. (Photo by Edward Kitch/AP Photo)

In this Saturday, December 30, 2017, picture a girl wearing a bear fur costume takes part in an annual bear parade in Comanesti, Romania. It's a tradition that originated in pre-Christian times, when dancers wearing colored costumes or animal furs went from house to house in villages, singing and dancing to ward off evil. (Photo by Vadim Ghirda/AP Photo)

A Sadhu or a Hindu holy man performs to receive money from pilgrims at a makeshift shelter, before heading for an annual trip to Sagar Island for the one-day festival of “Makar Sankranti”, in Kolkata, India, January 10, 2018. (Photo by Rupak De Chowdhuri/Reuters)

A woman peels potatoes for sale at a market located along a railway line in West Jakarta, Indonesia March 1, 2016. (Photo by Garry Lotulung/Reuters)