diff --git a/conversion_utils/conllu_to_tei.py b/conversion_utils/conllu_to_tei.py
index 3542280..164976e 100644
--- a/conversion_utils/conllu_to_tei.py
+++ b/conversion_utils/conllu_to_tei.py
@@ -312,7 +312,7 @@ def construct_tei_etrees(conllu_lines):
 
 
 def convert_file(input_file_name, output_file_name):
-    input_file = open(input_file_name, 'r')
+    input_file = open(input_file_name, 'r', encoding='utf-8')
     root = construct_tei_etrees(input_file)[0]
     tree = etree.ElementTree(root)
     tree.write(output_file_name, encoding='UTF-8', pretty_print=True)
@@ -332,7 +332,7 @@ if __name__ == '__main__':
     args = parser.parse_args()
 
     if args.out:
-        f_out = open(args.out, 'w')
+        f_out = open(args.out, 'w', encoding='utf-8')
     else:
         f_out = sys.stdout
 
@@ -341,7 +341,7 @@ if __name__ == '__main__':
     for arg in args.files:
         filelist = glob(arg)
         for f in filelist:
-            with open(f, 'r') as conllu_f:
+            with open(f, 'r', encoding='utf-8') as conllu_f:
                 tei_etrees = construct_tei_etrees(conllu_f)
             for tei_etree in tei_etrees:
                 f_out.write(etree.tostring(tei_etree, pretty_print=True, encoding='utf-8').decode())
diff --git a/conversion_utils/translate_conllu_jos.py b/conversion_utils/translate_conllu_jos.py
index b92ac0c..b73c195 100644
--- a/conversion_utils/translate_conllu_jos.py
+++ b/conversion_utils/translate_conllu_jos.py
@@ -4,7 +4,6 @@ This script was developed in the context of a specific task and may not generali
 """
 
 import argparse
-import codecs
 import lxml.etree as lxml
 from importlib_resources import files
 
@@ -13,7 +12,7 @@ from conversion_utils.jos_msds_and_properties import Converter, Msd
 
 def get_syn_map():
     dict_file_name = files('conversion_utils.resources').joinpath('dict.xml')
-    dict_file = codecs.open(dict_file_name, 'r')
+    dict_file = open(dict_file_name, 'r', encoding='utf-8')
     root = lxml.parse(dict_file).getroot()
     dict_file.close() 
     return {syn.get('en'):syn.get('sl') for syn in root.xpath('syns/syn')}
@@ -23,8 +22,8 @@ def translate(input_file_name, scope, output_file_name):
 
     syn_map = get_syn_map()
 
-    output_file = codecs.open(output_file_name, 'w')
-    input_file = codecs.open(input_file_name, 'r')
+    output_file = open(output_file_name, 'w', encoding='utf-8')
+    input_file = open(input_file_name, 'r', encoding='utf-8')
 
     converter = Converter()