First all all, urls are much too long anyway, see
https://openacs.org/bugtracker/openacs/bug?bug_number=997 and #9 in
http://www.useit.com/alertbox/20021223.html , and have redundant parts. So there must be some way to specify or shorter one, explicitly (if this shorter name cannot be assigned for all longer titles as class and forum titles, anyway, leading to at least state-of-the-art breadcrumbtrails and navigation pane).
Compared to these severe usability problems, character set problems are minor, IMO.