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)

Two young women huddle up in their coats as they brave the cold in Newcastle, England on February 1, 2019. Women in skimpy dresses and men in t-shirts enjoyed a drink and a dance as they celebrated January finally being over. (Photo by Will Walker/North News and Pictures)

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)

British singer-songwriter Raye (L) during The BRIT Awards 2021 at The O2 Arena on May 11, 2021 in London, England. (Photo by JMEnternational/JMEnternational for Brit Awards/Getty Images)

A green frog sits on a moth orchid at a local agricultural research center in Hwaseong, about 40 kilometers south of Seoul, South Korea, 03 March 2022, two days ahead of “gyeongchip”. On the lunar calendar, gyeongchip is the day when frogs awake from hibernation. (Photo by Yonhap/EPA/EFE)

Ketula Melo from the Imperatriz Leopoldinense samba school performs during Carnival celebrations at the Sambadrome in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, Friday, April 22, 2022. (AP Photo/Bruna Prado)

Sneha Mindani, 14, one of the survivors of the April 2019 Easter Sunday bomb attack, wipes her tears as her father delivers a speech during a protest to demand justice for this attack, on the third anniversary of the event, near the Presidential Secretariat, amid the country's economic crisis, in Colombo, Sri Lanka, April 17, 2022. (Photo by Navesh Chitrakar/Reuters)

A girl poses in antlers ahead of a curfew on pub in Nottingham, a city in central England’s Midlands region on September 21, 2020 as Freshers' Week got underway. Revellers were also pictured out in Birmingham, which was plunged into a local lockdown amid a surge in coronavirus cases. (Photo by Ashley Kirk/The Sun)