3.4.1 Guidelines for Conducting an Interview There are generally five stages of an interview with a victim or witness, which can be remembered by the acronym PEACE: • Planning & Preparation • Engaging with the victim/witness • Obtaining the Account • Closing an interview appropriately, and • Conducting an Evaluation after the interview took place.128 The operating mandate of a field mission may require a different prioritization of these stages but it is important to at least take due consideration of each of the PEACE stages. It is moreover helpful to consider the PEACE process as a “circled” approach to: 1. Build rapport 2. Discuss general topics 3. Discuss painful/sensitive topics 4. Return back to general topics 5. End in present/future on more positive note. Planning and Preparing the Interview Proper planning and preparation for an interview with a victim of witness is of paramount importance and will benefit the quality of the account taken. Interviewers should: 128 United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime, Anti-human Trafficking manual for criminal justice practitioners, module 8: Interviewing victims of trafficking in persons who are potential witnesses, 44 (2009), available at http://www.unodc.org/documents/human-trafficking/TIP_module8_Ebook.pdf. 95