diff --git a/CHANGES b/CHANGES
index bebbd818c..42e3b77e8 100644
--- a/CHANGES
+++ b/CHANGES
@@ -69,6 +69,8 @@ Bugs fixed
 * Fix the handling of explicit module names given to autoclass directives.
   They now show up with the correct module name in the generated docs.
 
+* Enable autodoc to process Unicode docstrings.
+
 
 Release 0.3 (May 6, 2008)
 =========================
diff --git a/sphinx/ext/autodoc.py b/sphinx/ext/autodoc.py
index 36d6a32ca..b68285846 100644
--- a/sphinx/ext/autodoc.py
+++ b/sphinx/ext/autodoc.py
@@ -218,7 +218,7 @@ def generate_rst(what, name, members, inherited, undoc, add_content, document,
     module = getattr(todoc, '__module__', None)
     if module is not None:
         charset = get_module_charset(module)
-        docstrings = [docstring.decode(charset) for docstring in docstrings]
+        docstrings = [isinstance(d, str) and d.decode(charset) or d for d in docstrings]
 
     # add docstring content
     for docstring in docstrings: