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)

People attend the C2H4 catwalk show at London Fashion Week Men's in London, Britain January 6, 2019. (Photo by Henry Nicholls/Reuters)

Russian Emergency Situations employees help a girl to bath in the icy water on Epiphany at the Church of the Holy Trinity in Ostankino near TV Tower in Moscow, Russia, Friday, January 18, 2019. Across Russia, the devout and the daring are observing the Orthodox Christian feast day of Epiphany by immersing themselves in frigid water through holes cut through the ice of lakes and rivers. Epiphany celebrates the revelation of Jesus Christ as the incarnation of God through his baptism in the River Jordan. (Photo by Alexander Zemlianichenko/AP Photo)

Girls play in the makeshift refugee camp at the northern Greek border point of Idomeni, Greece, Thursday, March 17, 2016. Leaders of the EU's 28 divided nations reconvene in Brussels in hopes of ironing out disagreements on a proposed agreement with Turkey in the migrants crisis. (Photo by Vadim Ghirda/AP Photo)

In this Sunday, June 27, 2010 file photo two men compete in an ostrich race at Highgate ostrich farm in Oudtshoorn, South Africa. Clambering onto an ostrich for a ride used to be popular among tourists in a South African town of Oudtshoorn known of as the “ostrich capital of the world”. Not so much anymore. Two major ostrich farms in Oudtshoorn have stopped offering ostrich rides to tourists, responding to concerns about the birds’ welfare. A third farm is sticking with the feature, saying it is regulated and that ostriches do not experience discomfort. The Highgate farm, however, continues to offer ostrich rides. (Photo by Shuji Kajiyama/AP Photo)

Syrian Internal Security Forces dance in celebration during their graduation ceremony, at Ain Issa desert base, in Raqqa province, northeast Syria, Thursday, July 20, 2017. Some 250 residents of Syria's Raqqa province are the latest batch to graduate from a brief U.S-training course that is preparing an internal security force to hold and secure areas as they are captured from Islamic State militants. (Photo by Hussein Malla/AP Photo)

A girl holds her hedgehog to be blessed by a priest at the Cathedral San Bernardino de Siena during the ceremony commemorating the Feast of San Antonio Abad, the patron saint of domestic animals, in Xochimilco on the outskirts of Mexico City, Mexico on January 17, 2024. (Photo by Raquel Cunha/Reuters)

Wayne McMahon from “The Wolfhound Experience” walking alongside four Irish Wolfhounds: Connell, Mac, Brendan, and Barra, accompanied by an Irish Terrier Lady MacBeth, at St. Stephen's Green in Dublin, Ireland, on May 16, 2024. The Wolfhound Experience offers a one-hour walking tour in Dublin's St. Stephens' Green, where visitors can meet and learn about Irish Wolfhounds, the gentle giants of the canine world. (Photo by Artur Widak/NurPhoto/Rex Features/Shutterstock)