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 mother raise her glass filled with 2017 Beaujolais Nouveau wine as she holds her child in a colored hot water “wine bath” at Hakone Kowakien Yunessun hot spring resort in Hakone, west of Tokyo, Japan, 16 November 2017, on the day of the Beaujolais Nouveau official release. With Germany and the United States, Japan is a major market for the Beaujolais Nouveau. (Photo by Franck Robichon/EPA/EFE)

A man inspects a plastic cover placed over an artwork attributed to Banksy on May 17, 2012 in London, England. The stencilled image depicts a poor child making Union Jack flags on a sewing machine and is located on the wall of a Poundland discount shop in the Wood Green area of north London. (Photo by Peter Macdiarmid)

These stunning photographs really do show a land of fire and ice! The frozen landscape of the Olkhon Islands, Russia, appears to be ablaze in some of these pictures as the icy sheets of the glaciers reflect the early morning suns rays. (Photo by Vladimir Ryabkov/Caters News Agency)

This photo taken on January 28, 2018 shows participants taking part in games on stage during the “&Proud” LGBT festival in Yangon. Races, games, music and fun were just some of the highlights of the “&Proud” LGBT festival, which took place in a Yangon public park for the first time at the weekend in a country where same-s*x relations are still officially illegal. (Photo by Ye Aung Thu/AFP Photo)

An indigenous woman kicks the ball during a Mayan ball game match in Tecpan, Guatemala on March 23, 2024. Dressed in shorts, girdle and uncovered torso, members of eleven teams from the Guatemalan indigenous departments of Chimaltenango, Quiche, Solola and Quetzaltenango, as well as one from El Salvador, commemorated the March equinox with a tournament of the ancestral Mayan ball game on Saturday. (Photo by Photo by Johan Ordonez/AFP Photo)

An athletes competes in a log carrying relay race event at Peruibe beach during the Indigenous Games, near the Tapirema community of Peruibe, Brazil, Sunday, April 23, 2023. Hundreds of Indigenous athletes gather this weekend in the south of Sao Paulo state to hold their version of the Olympic Games. They will compete for medals in archery, tug of war, athletics, Indigenous wrestling and other sports. (Photo by Andre Penner/AP Photo)

An Orthodox Christian child is baptized during Epiphany celebrations in the Jordan River January 19, 2012 at the Qasir al-Yahud baptismal site near Jericho, in the West Bank. Thousands of pilgrims gathered for the annual celebration at the site that the Eastern churches believes Jesus was baptised by John. (Photo by Uriel Sinai/Getty Images)