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)

Abandoned cars are seen around a cross in the village of Tbeti near Tskhinvali, the capital of the breakaway region of South Ossetia, Georgia, July 4, 2015. President Vladimir Putin signed a treaty with Georgia's rebel South Ossetia region on March 18 that almost completely integrates it with Russia, alarming Georgia and the West a year after Moscow took over Crimea. Russia won a five-day war with Georgia in 2008 over the fate of South Ossetia and another rebel region, Abkhazia. It formally recognizes both regions as independent states and signed a similar treaty with Abkhazia last year. (Photo by Kazbek Basaev/Reuters)

Peasants in the re-taken Somme District work in the fields, circa 1916- 1917, in this Library of Congress handout photo. For women 100 years ago, opportunities to work beyond the home and take part in political life were very limited. As the 20th century progressed, hard-won progress included gradually improved voting rights, while the upheaval of war pushed doors ajar as women worked as part of the war effort. U.S. Library of Congress archive photos show women's workplaces ranging from a flour mill in England to a coal mine in Belgium or Lincoln Motor Co.'s welding department in Detroit. International Women's Day is celebrated on March 8. (Photo by Reuters/Bain Collection/Library of Congress)

A Palestinian beekeeper uses smoke to calm bees in the process of collecting honey at a farm in Rafah, in the southern Gaza Strip April 11, 2016. Rateb Samour sees 250 patients a day, whose complaints range from hair loss to cerebral palsy and cancer. He is not a doctor and has never worked in a hospital. Samour inherited the skill of bee-sting therapy from his father. From 2003 the agricultural engineer dedicated all his time to study and develop the alternative-medicine treatment of apitherapy, which uses bee-related products from honey, propolis – or bee glue used to build hives – to venom. (Photo by Suhaib Salem/Reuters)

People enjoy themselves as they dance to Dominican music at a refugee camp for Haitians returning from the Dominican Republic on the outskirts of Anse-a-Pitres, Haiti, September 6, 2015. Dominican officials last month began implementing a controversial immigration program targeting Haitian migrants and Dominican-born people of Haitian descent. The program centers on round-ups and deportations that have triggered concerns about a slow-growing border migration crisis in the poorest country in the Americas. So far about 1,500 people have been deported at a pace of 50 to 100 per day, according to relief officials with access to records supplied by the Dominican government. (Photo by Andres Martinez Casares/Reuters)

Winti spiritual leader Ramon Mac-Nack (2nd L) looks on as as his bride Melissa Karwafodi (2nd R) hands a gourd to a Maroon priest (L) as they are wedded in the first Winti marriage ever to be held in public, in district Para, Suriname, November 16, 2015. The Winti religion, which formed centuries ago out of elements of different religious traditions that African slaves brought with them to Suriname, was considered a form idolatry and prohibited by law since the days of slavery until it was finally officially recognized in 1971. (Photo by Ranu Abhelakh/Reuters)

Members of the Compagnie 1602 take part in a procession in Geneva December 14, 2014. The annual procession of the Fete de l'Escalade has been held since 1926 and commemorates local resistance to the December 11, 1602 surprise attack by the troops of the Duke of Savoy. A popular symbol of the resistance is the figure of Mere Royaume pouring hot soup from her caldron onto the soldiers. A chocolate replica of the cauldron is widely available during the three-day celebrations. This year marks also the 200-year anniversary of the entry of the Canton of Geneva in the Swiss Confederation. (Photo by Pierre Albouy/Reuters)

A canine-crazy photographer helped make his dog healthy after seeing him raid the fridge by posing him up with fruit. Scott Cromwell, 43, from Oklahoma City, caught faithful mutt Winston guzzling hot dogs after he looted the refrigerator. Well-trained Winston was then happy to get his five-a-day by taking tongue-in-cheek snaps with red apples, bananas, grapes, limes and orange. (Photo by Scott Cromwell/Caters News)