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)

As part of FLAIR Melbourne – a Flinders Lane art festival – Melbourne’s Lisa Minogue presents stylised photographic portraits of Australian women of colour, their faces painted vibrantly to accentuate their individuality and encourage the viewer to study each face more closely. Minogue asked each woman the same question: “What do the words “coloured girl” mean to you?”. (Photo by Lisa Minogue/The Guardian)

Palestinian girl Manar Al-Shinbari (R), 15, who lost her both legs by what medics said was Israeli shelling at a UN-run school where she was taking refuge during the 50-day war last summer, is helped by her sister to put on her headscarf in an apartment in Jabaliya refugee camp in the northern Gaza Strip January 13, 2015. Manar's mother and three of her brothers were killed in the same incident. The girl's family house was destroyed by Israeli shelling during the war. (Photo by Mohammed Salem/Reuters)

Young girls take ballet lessons at the New Dreams dance studio in the Luz neighborhood known to locals as Cracolandia (Crackland) in Sao Paulo, Brazil, August 14, 2015. For the young girls learning to jump and plie, the dance studio provides a way forward and out of the difficult environment they have grown up in. Brazil is one of the world's highest consuming countries of crack cocaine, and Cracolandia, or “Crack Land”, located in the outskirts of Sao Paulo, is one of the most intense and brutal hubs. (Photo by Nacho Doce/Reuters)

Women talk during a Slutwalk march for the right of women to wear what they want without harassment on May 28, 2011 in Melbourne, Australia. The Slutwalk began with a small protest in Toronto, Canada, when women marched against a policeman who claimed he was told women should “avoid dressing like sl*ts in order not to be victimized”. Slutwalks are scheduled for Adeleaide and Sydney as well as other cities in North America and Europe. (Photo by Scott Barbour/Getty Images)

American photographer Austin Tott created the series ‘Tiny Tattoos’ that matches miniature hand-drawn tattoos with the backgrounds from which they draw visual reference. A small bicycle is placed in its urban environment, little trees and envelopes find their bigger brothers and a tiny fox is put in the context of wooden logs.

The pygmy marmoset (Cebuella pygmaea) is a small New World monkey native to rainforests of the western Amazon Basin in South America. It is notable for being the smallest monkey in the world at just over 100 grams (3.5 oz). It is generally found in evergreen and river edge forests and is a gum-feeding specialist

Lítla Dímun is a small island between the islands of Suðuroy and Stóra Dímun in the Faroe Islands of Denmark. It is the smallest of the main 18 islands, being less than 100 hectares (250 acres) in area, and is the only uninhabited one. The island can be seen from the villages Hvalba and Sandvík.