Muslim girls have their hands painted with traditional henna as they attend an Eid al-Fitr prayer, marking the end of the fasting month of Ramadan, at historical Badshahi mosque in Lahore, Pakistan, Wednesday, April, 10, 2024. (Photo by K.M. Chaudary/AP Photo)

A Chinese girl in traditional dress eats her lunch in a Five Guys restaurant in between shooting videos for her Chinese social media account on October 18, 2023 in London, United Kingdom. (Photo by Dan Kitwood/Getty Images)

Playful little Asian girl having fun with Christmas decorations, holding up pine cones over eyes against decorated Christmas tree at Christmas time. Christmas lifestyle. Celebrating Christmas. Holiday and festive vibes. (Photo by d3sign/Getty Images)

Kyrgyz girls pose in traditional costumes during the Nowruz celebration in Bishkek, Kyrgyzstan, 20 March 2024. Nowruz is the Persian New Year celebrated by various ethnic groups worldwide and it traditionally marks the first day of spring. (Photo by Igor Kovalenko/EPA/EFE)

5-year-old Chinese girl Wang Anna prepares meals for her grandmother and great-grandmother at home in Zhuyuan village, Guizhou province, China on March 3, 2017. Chinese girl called Wang Anna, 5, takes care of her ill grandmother and 92-year-old great-grandmother on her own every day in a mountainous village in Zhima town, Zunyi city, southwest China's Guizhou province. Her father went to jail before she was born and her mother remarried after gave birth to her. Although she is just five years old, she started to shoulder the responsibility to look after ill grandmother and elderly great-grandmother. (Photo by Imaginechina/Rex Features/Shutterstock)

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)

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)

“Cockayne syndrome (also called Weber-Cockayne syndrome, or Neill-Dingwall Syndrome) is a rare autosomal recessive congenital disorder characterized by growth failure, impaired development of the nervous system, abnormal sensitivity to sunlight (photosensitivity), and premature aging. Hearing loss and eye abnormalities (pigmentary retinopathy) are other common features, but problems with any or all of the internal organs are possible. It is associated with a group of disorders called leukodystrophies. The underlying disorder is a defect in a DNA repair mechanism. It is named after English physician Edward Alfred Cockayne (1880–1956)”. – Wikipedia

Photo: Mother of 12-year-old Chinese girl Sun Yangyang suffering from Cockayne syndrome, tends her at the First Affiliated Hospital of Jilin University on November 11, 2006 in Changchun of Jilin Province, China. The disease results in the senile appearance of Yangyang and also causes eyesight, hearing weakness and other problems. Doctors failed to cure the girl... (Photo by China Photos/Getty Images)