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)

A member of North Korean military holds flowers to be laid at the bronze statues of the late leaders Kim Il Sung and Kim Jong Il at Mansu Hill Grand Monument in Pyongyang, North Korea, Monday, December 17, 2018. North Koreans are marking the seventh anniversary of the death of leader Kim Jong Il with visits to the statues and vows of loyalty to his son, Kim Jong Un. (Photo by Dita Alangkara/AP Photo)

A Fulani woman fixes her head scalf on the street of Dapchi, Yobe state, Nigeria on February 27, 2018. (Photo by Afolabi Sotunde/Reuters)

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)

A teller at a money changer handles Indonesia rupiah bank notes in Jakarta, Indonesia November 11, 2016. (Photo by Darren Whiteside/Reuters)

Maja, a 40-year-old elephant, extends her trunk into a bakery as a customer buys a newspaper while Maja took a stroll through the neighborhood with her minders from a nearby circus on July 1, 2016 in Berlin, Germany. (Photo by Sean Gallup/Getty Images)

Russian soldiers from 34th motorized infantry mountain brigade, 58th Army, prepare to evacuate a fellow soldier acting as an injured person during a drill at the Darial range outside Russia's city of Vladikavkaz, July 28, 2010. (Photo by Kazbek Basayev/Reuters)