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 boy plays on the glass at Thailand's first skywalk in Bangkok, Thailand on November 18, 2018. (Photo by Soe Zeya Tun/Reuters)

A woman poses with a grenade launcher at a weapons exhibition during festivities marking Marines Day in St.Petersburg, Russia, Saturday, November 24, 2018. (Photo by Dmitri Lovetsky/AP Photo)

Black Live Matter march from Clapham Common (led by Iman, the Forever Family Force and the Slow Boys, on motorbikes) to join the Stop the Maangamizi: Afrikan Emancipation Day Reparations Rebellion in London, UK on August 1, 2020. They aim to lock-down Brixton because “WE/they are not being HEARD” in their demand for the UK Government to establish the All-Party Parliamentary Commission of Inquiry for Truth & Reparatory Justice. (Photo by Guy Bell/Alamy Live News)

A fisherman with a close bond to cormorants uses the flock of birds to catch big fish in Li river in Guilin, China. The aquatic birds can be seen perching on a bamboo raft before swooping into the calm water to grasp hold of prey. (Photo by Julia Wimmerlin/Solnet News & Photo Agency)

Yeshiva School students briefly dance on Grant Street after the menorah lighting outside of the City-County Building for the fifth night of Hanukkah, Thursday, December 26, 2019, in downtown Pittsburgh. (Photo by Alexandra Wimley/Pittsburgh Post-Gazette via AP Photo)

Pro-democracy protesters dressed in traditional Thai costumes take part in an anti-government rally in Bangkok on October 14, 2020. (Photo by Jack Taylor/AFP Photo)

A homeless man sleeps against a wall adorned with a mural featuring a Shipibo Indigenous girl and Amazon rainforest animals, in Pucallpa, in Peru's Ucayali region, Wednesday, September 2, 2020. Peru is home to one of Latin America's largest Indigenous populations, whose ancestors lived in the Andean country before the arrival of Spanish colonists. (Photo by Rodrigo Abd/AP Photo)