diff --git a/Makefile b/Makefile
index 1e23b7a..d66cb8b 100644
--- a/Makefile
+++ b/Makefile
@@ -1,6 +1,6 @@
 LIBNAME := $(shell basename $$(pwd))
 MAJOR := 1
-MINOR := 1.0
+MINOR := 2.0
 
 UNAME_S := $(shell uname -s)
 
@@ -35,7 +35,7 @@ else
 	CXXFLAGS += -D NDEBUG -O3
 endif
 
-LDLIBS := -lscerror
+LDLIBS := -lscerror -lunistring
 
 RM := /bin/rm -f
 INSTALL := /usr/bin/install -c
diff --git a/generics.hpp b/generics.hpp
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..41919c5
--- /dev/null
+++ b/generics.hpp
@@ -0,0 +1,19 @@
+#ifndef GENERICS_H_
+#define GENERICS_H_
+
+#include <string>
+#include <sstream>
+
+namespace sc {
+
+    template<typename T>
+    T from_string(const std::string& val) {
+        T result;
+        std::istringstream iss {val};
+        iss >> result;
+        return result;
+    }
+
+}
+
+#endif // GENERICS_H_
diff --git a/string_utils.cpp b/string_utils.cpp
index b8a25ee..3bce5d8 100644
--- a/string_utils.cpp
+++ b/string_utils.cpp
@@ -10,6 +10,7 @@
 #include <libscerror.hpp>
 #include <sys/stat.h>
 #include <limits.h>
+#include <uninorm.h>
 #include <cerrno>
 #include <fstream>
 #include <algorithm>
@@ -264,3 +265,21 @@ string sc::real_path(const string& path) {
     }
     return "";
 }
+
+string sc::remove_accents(const string& text) {
+    vector<char> buf;
+    buf.resize(text.size() * 2);
+    size_t bufsize {buf.size()};
+    u8_normalize(UNINORM_NFD,
+                 reinterpret_cast<const uint8_t*>(text.data()),
+                 text.size(),
+                 reinterpret_cast<uint8_t*>(buf.data()),
+                 &bufsize);
+
+    // hack: now remove all bytes with a value higher than 127
+    auto it = remove_if(buf.begin(), buf.end(), [](uint8_t c) {
+        return c > 127;
+    });
+    buf.erase(it, buf.end());
+    return {buf.data()};
+}
diff --git a/string_utils.hpp b/string_utils.hpp
index da24fbd..45f4c03 100644
--- a/string_utils.hpp
+++ b/string_utils.hpp
@@ -64,6 +64,8 @@ namespace sc {
     bool                                is_valid_utf8       (const std::string& str);
 
     std::string                         real_path           (const std::string& path);
+
+    std::string                         remove_accents      (const std::string& text);
 }
 
 #endif // _string_utils_