diff --git a/.travis.yml b/.travis.yml
index e8e19bc01e..2f1c810399 100644
--- a/.travis.yml
+++ b/.travis.yml
@@ -28,6 +28,7 @@ matrix:
           packages:
             - libwww-perl
             - clang-3.7
+            - libstdc++-5-dev
             - libubsan0
       before_install:
         - mkdir bin ; ln -s /usr/bin/clang-3.7 bin/gcc
diff --git a/src/util/unicode.cpp b/src/util/unicode.cpp
index 82acd36d4e..1e280783af 100644
--- a/src/util/unicode.cpp
+++ b/src/util/unicode.cpp
@@ -7,6 +7,10 @@ Author: Daniel Kroening, kroening@kroening.com
 \*******************************************************************/
 
 #include <cstring>
+#include <locale>
+#include <codecvt>
+#include <iomanip>
+#include <sstream>
 
 #include "unicode.h"
 
@@ -258,3 +262,79 @@ const char **narrow_argv(int argc, const wchar_t **argv_wide)
 
   return argv_narrow;
 }
+
+/*******************************************************************\
+
+Function: utf8_to_utf16_big_endian
+
+  Inputs: String in UTF-8 format
+
+ Outputs: String in UTF-16BE format
+
+ Purpose: Note this requires g++-5 libstdc++ / libc++ / MSVC2010+
+
+\*******************************************************************/
+
+std::wstring utf8_to_utf16_big_endian(const std::string& in)
+{
+  std::wstring_convert<std::codecvt_utf8_utf16<wchar_t> > converter;
+  return converter.from_bytes(in);
+}
+
+/*******************************************************************\
+
+Function: utf8_to_utf16_little_endian
+
+  Inputs: String in UTF-8 format
+
+ Outputs: String in UTF-16LE format
+
+ Purpose: Note this requires g++-5 libstdc++ / libc++ / MSVC2010+
+
+\*******************************************************************/
+
+std::wstring utf8_to_utf16_little_endian(const std::string& in)
+{
+  const std::codecvt_mode mode=std::codecvt_mode::little_endian;
+
+  // default largest value codecvt_utf8_utf16 reads without error is 0x10ffff
+  // see: http://en.cppreference.com/w/cpp/locale/codecvt_utf8_utf16
+  const unsigned long maxcode=0x10ffff;
+
+  typedef std::codecvt_utf8_utf16<wchar_t, maxcode, mode> codecvt_utf8_utf16t;
+  std::wstring_convert<codecvt_utf8_utf16t> converter;
+  return converter.from_bytes(in);
+}
+
+/*******************************************************************\
+
+Function: utf16_little_endian_to_ascii
+
+  Inputs: String in UTF-16LE format
+
+ Outputs: String in US-ASCII format, with \uxxxx escapes for other
+          characters
+
+ Purpose:
+
+\*******************************************************************/
+
+std::string utf16_little_endian_to_ascii(const std::wstring& in)
+{
+  std::ostringstream result;
+  std::locale loc;
+  for(const auto c : in)
+  {
+    if(c<=255 && isprint(c, loc))
+      result << (unsigned char)c;
+    else
+    {
+      result << "\\u"
+             << std::hex
+             << std::setw(4)
+             << std::setfill('0')
+             << (unsigned int)c;
+    }
+  }
+  return result.str();
+}
diff --git a/src/util/unicode.h b/src/util/unicode.h
index edad95039f..c4bcab617d 100644
--- a/src/util/unicode.h
+++ b/src/util/unicode.h
@@ -22,6 +22,10 @@ std::wstring widen(const std::string &s);
 std::string utf32_to_utf8(const std::basic_string<unsigned int> &s);
 std::string utf16_to_utf8(const std::basic_string<unsigned short int> &s);
 
+std::wstring utf8_to_utf16_big_endian(const std::string &);
+std::wstring utf8_to_utf16_little_endian(const std::string &);
+std::string utf16_little_endian_to_ascii(const std::wstring &in);
+
 const char **narrow_argv(int argc, const wchar_t **argv_wide);
 
 #endif // CPROVER_UTIL_UNICODE_H