diff --git a/django/newforms/fields.py b/django/newforms/fields.py
index a32018e108..ec3b7fc318 100644
--- a/django/newforms/fields.py
+++ b/django/newforms/fields.py
@@ -34,6 +34,8 @@ class Field(object):
     creation_counter = 0
 
     def __init__(self, required=True, widget=None, label=None):
+        if label is not None:
+            label = smart_unicode(label)
         self.required, self.label = required, label
         widget = widget or self.widget
         if isinstance(widget, type):
diff --git a/tests/regressiontests/forms/tests.py b/tests/regressiontests/forms/tests.py
index 058a3d8958..474d4a20ae 100644
--- a/tests/regressiontests/forms/tests.py
+++ b/tests/regressiontests/forms/tests.py
@@ -2062,6 +2062,14 @@ underscores converted to spaces, and the initial letter capitalized.
 <li>Password1: <input type="password" name="password1" /></li>
 <li>Password (again): <input type="password" name="password2" /></li>
 
+A label can be a Unicode object or a bytestring with special characters.
+>>> class UserRegistration(Form):
+...    username = CharField(max_length=10, label='ŠĐĆŽćžšđ')
+...    password = CharField(widget=PasswordInput, label=u'\u0160\u0110\u0106\u017d\u0107\u017e\u0161\u0111')
+>>> p = UserRegistration(auto_id=False)
+>>> p.as_ul()
+u'<li>\u0160\u0110\u0106\u017d\u0107\u017e\u0161\u0111: <input type="text" name="username" maxlength="10" /></li>\n<li>\u0160\u0110\u0106\u017d\u0107\u017e\u0161\u0111: <input type="password" name="password" /></li>'
+
 # Forms with prefixes #########################################################
 
 Sometimes it's necessary to have multiple forms display on the same HTML page,