Failure‍‌‍‍‌ of institutions and cultural resistance, particularly in remote areas and lower administrative levels, have a negative impact on the implementation of children's rights in Nigeria. Despite the fact that the Child Rights Act (CRA) has been formally adopted, there is still a shortage of observance and participation of the local communities. Research shows that trust in institutions and cultural resistance significantly influence the implementation of children's rights in the South-East of ‍‌‍‍‌Nigeria. The staff of the Public Complaint Commission (PCC) as a statutory ombudsman institution were the main actors in this study. The team, led by the Institutional Theory and Cultural Relativism Theory, used a mixed-methods design that involved 65 PCC staff in Enugu and Ebonyi States. The quantitative data were analyzed by means of descriptive statistics, Chi-square tests, and binary logistic regression, while qualitative information came from semi-structured interviews. The results show that trust in institutions plays a major role in enhancing the participation of the community, while cultural resistance has a negative effect on the implementation of the CRA. Both variables, when combined, determine the perceived and real performance of the PCC, with trust being the factor that relieves culture of its constraining nature. This research have pointed out that the effectiveness of enforcement is contingent upon the capacity of the institution to merge legal authority with socio-cultural legitimacy. The policy proposals make it clear that the institutional design should be transparent, community-oriented, and culturally sensitive, among other things, to help rebuild the trust and execute the Child Rights Acts in societies that are plural in ‍‌‍‍‌nature.