diff --git a/includes/form.inc b/includes/form.inc
index 02e54d1a383b..47ab93f13e98 100644
--- a/includes/form.inc
+++ b/includes/form.inc
@@ -1430,7 +1430,7 @@ function theme_textfield($element) {
 function theme_form($element) {
   // Anonymous div to satisfy XHTML compliance.
   $action = $element['#action'] ? 'action="' . check_url($element['#action']) . '" ' : '';
-  return '<form '. $action . ' method="'. $element['#method'] .'" '. 'id="'. $element['#id'] .'"'. drupal_attributes($element['#attributes']) .">\n<div>". $element['#children'] ."\n</div></form>\n";
+  return '<form '. $action .' accept-charset="UTF-8" method="'. $element['#method'] .'" '. 'id="'. $element['#id'] .'"'. drupal_attributes($element['#attributes']) .">\n<div>". $element['#children'] ."\n</div></form>\n";
 }
 
 /**