How to UTF-8 Encode an URI?

[eluser]developer10[/eluser]
I needed to add some characters to allowed characters whitelist (š,ž,č,ć,đ), but unfortunately these
characters are not properly encoded (by UTF-8) when pulled from URI, so my sql query end up with a strange
black diamond-shaped character with a question mark in the middle of it, in words where normally should any of these
characters be.

For example (word "pričati" - "to talk"):

Code:

... WHERE activity = 'Pri�ati' AND ...

As you can see, all i need is to have these caharacters utf-8 encoded, and my sql query will hopefully be able to retrieve
proper rows.

suggestions?