diff --git a/simgear/misc/strutils.cxx b/simgear/misc/strutils.cxx
index 48d8fea8..9fbcaf76 100644
--- a/simgear/misc/strutils.cxx
+++ b/simgear/misc/strutils.cxx
@@ -26,6 +26,7 @@
 #include <algorithm>
 #include <string.h>             // strerror_r() and strerror_s()
 #include <errno.h>
+#include <codecvt> // new in C++11
 
 #include "strutils.hxx"
 
@@ -401,6 +402,8 @@ std::wstring convertUtf8ToWString(const std::string& a)
 #ifdef SG_WINDOWS
     return convertMultiByteToWString(CP_UTF8, a);
 #else
+    std::wstring_convert<std::codecvt_utf8<wchar_t>, wchar_t> ucs2conv;
+    return ucs2conv.from_bytes(a);
 #endif
 }
 
@@ -409,7 +412,8 @@ std::string convertWStringToUtf8(const std::wstring& w)
 #ifdef SG_WINDOWS
 	return convertWStringToMultiByte(CP_UTF8, w);
 #else
-
+    std::wstring_convert<std::codecvt_utf8<wchar_t>, wchar_t> ucs2conv;
+    return ucs2conv.to_bytes(w);
 #endif
 }