diff --git a/rclpy/src/rclpy/_rclpy.c b/rclpy/src/rclpy/_rclpy.c
index b92426755..ee79612e3 100644
--- a/rclpy/src/rclpy/_rclpy.c
+++ b/rclpy/src/rclpy/_rclpy.c
@@ -501,6 +501,10 @@ rclpy_init(PyObject * Py_UNUSED(self), PyObject * args)
       }
       // Borrows a pointer, do not free arg_values[i]
       arg_values[i] = PyUnicode_AsUTF8(pyarg);
+      if (NULL == arg_values[i]) {
+        have_args = false;
+        break;
+      }
     }
   }
 
diff --git a/rclpy/test/test_init_shutdown.py b/rclpy/test/test_init_shutdown.py
index ee14c6797..e8360ccec 100644
--- a/rclpy/test/test_init_shutdown.py
+++ b/rclpy/test/test_init_shutdown.py
@@ -33,11 +33,25 @@ def func_init():
         rclpy.init(context=context)
     except RuntimeError:
         return False
-
     rclpy.shutdown(context=context)
     return True
 
 
+def func_init_with_non_utf8_arguments():
+    import rclpy
+    context = rclpy.context.Context()
+    # Embed non decodable characters e.g. due to
+    # wrong locale settings.
+    # See PEP-383 for further reference.
+    args = ['my-node.py', 'Ragnar\udcc3\udcb6k']
+    try:
+        rclpy.init(context=context, args=args)
+    except UnicodeEncodeError:
+        return True
+    rclpy.shutdown(context=context)
+    return False
+
+
 def func_init_shutdown():
     import rclpy
     context = rclpy.context.Context()
@@ -124,6 +138,10 @@ def test_init():
     func_launch(func_init, 'failed to initialize rclpy')
 
 
+def test_init_with_non_utf8_arguments():
+    func_launch(func_init_with_non_utf8_arguments, 'handled non UTF-8 arguments')
+
+
 def test_init_shutdown():
     func_launch(func_init_shutdown, 'failed to shutdown rclpy')