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)

Anilson Costa, reveller of the annual block party “Ceu na Terra”, walks along the Santa Teresa neighborhood where the block party used to be celebrated, as Carnival celebrations have been canceled, amid the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) pandemic, in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil on February 12, 2021. (Photo by Pilar Olivares/Reuters)

A girl takes a skateboard class from the NGO “CDD Skate Arte”, at a public skate park in the City of God favela of Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, Thursday, August 5, 2021. (Photo by Bruna Prado/AP Photo)

African ostrichs are seen during sunny autumn day in the largest ostrich farm “Nornieki” in Snepele, Latvia, 18 October 2021. (Photo by Toms Kalnins/EPA/EFE)

A Togolese policeman, disguised as a terrorist, brandishes his weapon on October 20, 2022 during an anti-terrorism exercise at the Peacekeeping Operations Training Center (CEOMP). Togo's military on Thursday carried out a simulated jihadist attack in the capital Lome on Thursday, practising countering an assault and hostage-taking at a restaurant. Togo and neighbouring West African coastal states like Ghana and Benin are preparing for growing spillover from jihadist conflicts across their northern borders in Niger and Burkina Faso. (Photo by Yanick Folly/AFP Photo)

An Orthodox Jew child from Israel yells as other members of the community protest at a government facility where they are being held after being detained last Sunday during an operation by agents of the National Institute of Migration (INM), in Huixtla, Chiapas state, Mexico on September 28, 2022. (Photo by Jose Torres/Reuters)

Demonstrators march in Port-au-Prince on February 14, 2021, to protest against the government of President Jovenel Moise. Several thousand people demonstrated Sunday in the Haitian capital Port-au-Prince, saying the government was trying to establish a new dictatorship and denouncing international support for President Jovenel Moise. The protests were mostly peaceful, although a few clashes broke out between some demonstrators and police, who fired tear gas and rubber bullets. (Photo by Valerie Baeriswyl/AFP Photo)

A seagull files over a man sitting at a coffee shop backdropped by the Bosporus Strait in Istanbul, Tuesday, November 17, 2020. (Photo by Emrah Gurel/AP Photo)