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)

Kashmiri Muslim brides sit during a mass marriage of 30 couples in Srinagar, Indian controlled Kashmir, Wednesday, February 21, 2024. Mass weddings in India are organized by social organizations primarily to help economically weaker families who cannot afford the high ceremony costs as well as the customary dowry and expensive gifts that are still prevalent in many communities. (Photo by Mukhtar Khan/AP Photo)

Bogdana, 17, laughs with her boyfriend, Ivan, 19, in Brovary, Ukraine, Sunday, March 20, 2022. Russian forces pushed deeper into Ukraine's besieged and battered port city of Mariupol on Saturday, where heavy fighting shut down a major steel plant and local authorities pleaded for more Western help. (Photo by Vadim Ghirda/AP Photo)

Rocky the cat's recovery from a nerve condition in his legs is coming along swimmingly – thanks to regular hydrotherapy sessions at a 20ft-long swimming pool in United Kingdom in the second decade of March 2022. The two-year-old wears a life vest to help keep him afloat and needs a plastic toy to lure him from one end of the pool to the other. (Photo by Max Willcock/BNPS Press Agency)

A man holds a tree branch and marches by burning tires during a protest against insecurity, on August 7, 2023, near the Prime Minister's official house in Port-au-Prince, Haiti. Some 300 women and minors were kidnapped in Haiti by criminal gangs in the first half of this year, UNICEF said Monday, warning of a disturbing rise in abductions that leave “deep physical and psychological scars”. The surge in abductions threatens “both the people of Haiti and those who have come to help”. (Photo by Richard Pierrin/AFP Photo)

In this Friday, May 10, 2019, file photo, rescuers help a baby wild elephant cross the wetland to return to the forest at Deepor Beel wildlife sanctuary in Gauhati, India. The elephant had gotten stuck in the waters of Deepor Beel after it was separated from a herd of wild elephant that came down in search of food last night. (Photo by Anupam Nath/AP Photo)

A woman sells chips in Abidjan, Ivory Coast on August 09, 2019. World's number one cacao producer Ivory Coast's capital Abidjan set peace after the 201011 Ivorian crisis. Women in Abidjan work in various jobs to help their families' budget. (Photo by Mahmut Serdar Alakus/Anadolu Agency via Getty Images)

Fabian Ramirez, 11, scavenges a trash container for vegetables with his family that were discarded at the “Mercado de Abasto”, a market for vendors, during the fourth week of a quarantine to help contain the spread of the new coronavirus in Asuncion, Paraguay, Thursday, April 2, 2020. (Photo by Jorge Saenz/AP Photo)