diff --git a/lib/OpenLayers/Util.js b/lib/OpenLayers/Util.js
index d197eab502..48186c2d56 100644
--- a/lib/OpenLayers/Util.js
+++ b/lib/OpenLayers/Util.js
@@ -1062,11 +1062,25 @@ OpenLayers.Util.getParameters = function(url) {
     for(var i=0, len=pairs.length; i<len; ++i) {
         var keyValue = pairs[i].split('=');
         if (keyValue[0]) {
-            var key = decodeURIComponent(keyValue[0]);
-            var value = keyValue[1] || ''; //empty string if no value
 
-            //decode individual values (being liberal by replacing "+" with " ")
-            value = decodeURIComponent(value.replace(/\+/g, " ")).split(",");
+            var key = keyValue[0];
+            try {
+                key = decodeURIComponent(key);
+            } catch (err) {
+                key = unescape(key);
+            }
+            
+            // being liberal by replacing "+" with " "
+            var value = (keyValue[1] || '').replace(/\+/g, " ");
+
+            try {
+                value = decodeURIComponent(value);
+            } catch (err) {
+                value = unescape(value);
+            }
+            
+            // follow OGC convention of comma delimited values
+            value = value.split(",")
 
             //if there's only one value, do not return as array                    
             if (value.length == 1) {
diff --git a/tests/Util.html b/tests/Util.html
index a79ff2eab9..5dedb8ce1b 100644
--- a/tests/Util.html
+++ b/tests/Util.html
@@ -1,5 +1,6 @@
 <html>
 <head>
+  <meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html;charset=utf-8" />
   <script>
     var custom$ = function() {};
     window.$ = custom$;
@@ -894,7 +895,7 @@
     }
 
     function test_Util_getParameters(t) {
-        t.plan(13);
+        t.plan(17);
 
         t.eq(OpenLayers.Util.getParameters('http://www.example.com'), {},
              "getParameters works when args = ''");
@@ -952,6 +953,18 @@
         };
         var str = OpenLayers.Util.getParameterString(obj);
         t.eq(OpenLayers.Util.getParameters("?" + str), obj, "round tripped parameters");
+        
+        // try some oddly encoded strings
+        var url = "http://example.com/?C%E9sar=C%E9sar+Ch%E1vez";
+        var obj = OpenLayers.Util.getParameters(url);
+        t.ok("César" in obj, "got proper key from C%E9sar");
+        t.eq(obj["César"], "César Chávez", "got proper value from C%E9sar+Ch%E1vez");
+        
+        // try some properly encoded strings
+        var url = "http://example.com/?C%C3%A9sar=C%C3%A9sar+Ch%C3%A1vez";
+        var obj = OpenLayers.Util.getParameters(url);
+        t.ok("César" in obj, "got proper key from C%C3%A9sar");
+        t.eq(obj["César"], "César Chávez", "got proper value from C%E9sar+Ch%E1vez");
 
     }
 
