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)

Four-month-old fox cubs squaring up to each other in Walthamstow, England on August 7, 2015. (Photo by Greg Morgan/Barcroft Media)

Revelers dance at the Old Settler's Music Festival in Driftwood, Texas, U.S. on April 22, 2017. (Photo by Mohammad Khursheed/Reuters)

Replica of an old traditional Icelandic house from the 1800 with eruption of Iceland's Eyjafjallajökull volcano, 2013. (Photo by Ingólfur Bjargmundsson/Getty Images)

The 29-year-old English actress Kimberley Garner is seen in Cannes, France on May 20, 2019. (Photo by The Mega Agency)

The nearly four-week-old Tapir cub bathes on June 28, 2016 in Gondwanaland at the zoo in Leipzig, Saxony. (Photo by Jan Woitas/DPA)

Unnati, 6 years old, at home with his sister Ishika, 4 years old, in the Mahamai Ka Bagh neighborhood. Unnati was born to parents contaminated by a carcinogenic and mutagenic water supply. This year marks the 31st anniversary of the 1984 Union Carbide gas tragedy that killed thousands of citizens of Bhopal within 72 hours and has gone on to claim thousands more as a result of the polluted environment. (Photo by Giles Clarke/Getty Images)