a. The values of privacy, intimacy and sociability as grounds for the protection of the home 14. The values of privacy and intimacy are the natural basis for any discussion on the meaning of the inviolability of the home. Thus, the protection of the home, as this is usually established in national Constitutions, circumscribes a sphere of personal and family intimacy. 15. However, it is not possible to speak of privacy and intimacy without also referring to sociability. The usual references to the home as a “fortress” or “castle” within which the inhabitants should benefit from a barrier from the outside world, 26 may suggest simple notions of privacy and intimacy as individual rights. It is true that, as asserted by JeanPaul Demoule, “the home” signifies “the level of autonomy of the group that resides there in relation to the rest of society.” 27 However, placing emphasis exclusively on the barriers imposed by the home may neglect its importance as a necessary condition for the establishment and conservation of the ties between individuals. 16. To guarantee the protection of privacy and, therefore, the possibility of creating and maintaining ties, certain legal and social structures are required, including norms that guarantee the rights of an individual in relation to his home. Ultimately, the home is the place where these trust-based relationships – which include dimensions of personal attachment and belonging – typically exists and in which each member of the group that dwells in the home is in a socially comfortable situation in which they are an active and valued member. 28 Thus, we underscore that undue intrusion in the home may be profoundly destructive for the underlying relationship at the specific moment of intimacy that is interrupted. 29 Such disturbances are capable of eroding the material foundations that support the previous affective relationships between the individuals that live there and add to the violation of the sphere of personal liberty and intimacy. 17. Thus, any disruption of the intimacy of the home represents serious risks for these extremely important rights: privacy, intimacy and sociability. Arbitrary interference in the inviolability of the home by the state apparatus is especially serious because it uses coercive instruments with a high potential impact. 18. Consequently, it is not surprising that the international instruments for the protection of human rights have always reflected a concern for the inviolability of the home. Both the Universal Declaration of Human Rights (Article 12), and the American Declaration of the Rights and Duties of Man (Article 5) had already established the inviolability of the home in 1948. This guarantee was replicated in Article 17 of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR) in 1966, in Article 8 of the European Convention on Human Rights in 1950, and in Article 11 (in relation to Article 17) of the American Convention in 1969. 19. The European Court has also recognized that the home is the place where private and family life is usually carried on, and that people have a right to respect for their home, conceived not only as the right to the physical space but also as the right to enjoy it peacefully, so that it should be protected against the entry of unauthorized persons. 30 Similarly, the Inter-American Commission has indicated on several occasions that interventions of a State’s law enforcement agents in the family locus have violated the 26 Cf. MCCLAIN, L. C. Inviolability and privacy: the castle, the sanctuary, and the body. Yale Journal of Law & the Humanities, v. 7, n. 1, pp. 195–242, 1995. pp. 201-202. 27 Cf. DEMOULE, J.-P. Qu’est-ce qu’une maison? Rue Decartes, v. 43, n. 1, p. 104, 2004. p. 111. 28 TONER, C. Home and Our Need for It. Journal of Philosophical Research, v. 44, pp. 251–272, 2019. p. 264. 29 GERSTEIN, R. S. Intimacy and Privacy. Ethics, v. 89, n. 1, pp. 76–81, out. 1978, p. 79. Cf. ECHR. Halabi v. France n. 66554, Judgment of May 16, 2019, §54; and Sabani v. Belgium, n. 53069/15, Judgment of March 8, 2022, §41. 30 4