A boy tumbles as he plays soccer on the streets of the Khayelitsha township in Cape Town, December 3, 2009. (Photo by Kai Pfaffenbach/Reuters)

An Olive Ridley sea turtle hatchling releases into the sea at Lhoknga beach, Indonesia's Aceh province on January 16, 2024. (Photo by Chaideer Mahyuddin/AFP Photo)

American media personality Paris Hilton and American television personality Nicole Richie at 20th Century Fox Television USA Television TV Classics in 2003. (Photo by Sam Jones/20th Century Fox TV/Kobal/Rex Features/Shutterstock)

A house that was slammed off its foundation by Hurricane Isabel sits precariously on the beach one month after it hit Rodanthe, North Carolina October 18, 2003. (Photo by Rick Wilking/Reuters)

American rapper Cardi B, left, with American model Slick Woods, right, at the Moschino Miami Party, Art Basel, Miami Beach, Florida, USA on December 7, 2017. (Photo by Griffin Lipson/BFA/Rex Features/Shutterstock)

A Southwest Airlines jet takes off from Reagan National Airport with a thunderhead to the east on June 20, 2017 in Alexandria, VA. (Photo by Jonathan Newton/The Washington Post)

Vehicles move past a man wearing a protective mask against COVID-19 as he waits for the bus in Karachi, Pakistan on December 11, 2020. (Photo by Akhtar Soomro/Reuters)

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)