diff --git a/Lib/test/test_xmlrpc.py b/Lib/test/test_xmlrpc.py
--- a/Lib/test/test_xmlrpc.py
+++ b/Lib/test/test_xmlrpc.py
@@ -472,6 +472,9 @@ class SimpleServerTestCase(BaseServerTes
                 # protocol error; provide additional information in test output
                 self.fail("%s\n%s" % (e, getattr(e, "headers", "")))
 
+    def test_unicode_host(self):
+        server = xmlrpclib.ServerProxy(u"http://%s:%d/RPC2"%(ADDR, PORT))
+        self.assertEqual(server.add("a", u"\xe9"), u"a\xe9")
 
     # [ch] The test 404 is causing lots of false alarms.
     def XXXtest_404(self):
diff --git a/Lib/xmlrpclib.py b/Lib/xmlrpclib.py
--- a/Lib/xmlrpclib.py
+++ b/Lib/xmlrpclib.py
@@ -1539,6 +1539,9 @@ class ServerProxy:
                  allow_none=0, use_datetime=0):
         # establish a "logical" server connection
 
+        if isinstance(uri, unicode):
+            uri = uri.encode('ISO-8859-1')
+
         # get the url
         import urllib
         type, uri = urllib.splittype(uri)