--- a/junit_xml/__init__.py
+++ b/junit_xml/__init__.py
@@ -7,7 +7,6 @@
 import xml.etree.ElementTree as ET
 import xml.dom.minidom
 
-from six import u, iteritems, PY2
 
 try:
     # Python 2
@@ -59,18 +58,7 @@
     """
     If not already unicode, decode it.
     """
-    if PY2:
-        if isinstance(var, unicode):  # noqa: F821
-            ret = var
-        elif isinstance(var, str):
-            if encoding:
-                ret = var.decode(encoding)
-            else:
-                ret = unicode(var)  # noqa: F821
-        else:
-            ret = unicode(var)  # noqa: F821
-    else:
-        ret = str(var)
+    ret = str(var)
     return ret
 
 
@@ -293,7 +281,7 @@
         for key in ["time"]:
             attributes[key] += float(ts_xml.get(key, 0))
         xml_element.append(ts_xml)
-    for key, value in iteritems(attributes):
+    for key, value in attributes.items():
         xml_element.set(key, str(value))
 
     xml_string = ET.tostring(xml_element, encoding=encoding)
@@ -357,7 +345,7 @@
 
     illegal_ranges = ["%s-%s" % (unichr(low), unichr(high)) for (low, high) in illegal_unichrs if low < sys.maxunicode]
 
-    illegal_xml_re = re.compile(u("[%s]") % u("").join(illegal_ranges))
+    illegal_xml_re = re.compile("[%s]" % "".join(illegal_ranges))
     return illegal_xml_re.sub("", string_to_clean)
 
 
--- a/setup.py
+++ b/setup.py
@@ -28,5 +28,4 @@
         "Topic :: Software Development :: Build Tools",
         "Topic :: Software Development :: Testing",
     ],
-    install_requires=["six"],
 )
--- a/tests/serializer.py
+++ b/tests/serializer.py
@@ -3,8 +3,6 @@
 import tempfile
 from xml.dom import minidom
 
-from six import PY2
-
 from junit_xml import to_xml_report_file, to_xml_report_string
 
 
@@ -26,8 +24,6 @@
         os.remove(filename)
     else:
         xml_string = to_xml_report_string(test_suites, prettyprint=prettyprint, encoding=encoding)
-        if PY2:
-            assert isinstance(xml_string, unicode)  # noqa: F821
         print("Serialized XML to string:\n%s" % xml_string)
         if encoding:
             xml_string = xml_string.encode(encoding)
--- a/tests/test_test_case.py
+++ b/tests/test_test_case.py
@@ -1,7 +1,6 @@
 # -*- coding: UTF-8 -*-
 from __future__ import with_statement
 
-from six import u
 
 from .asserts import verify_test_case
 from junit_xml import TestCase as Case
@@ -188,19 +187,19 @@
 
 def test_init_legal_unicode_char():
     tc = Case("Failure-Message")
-    tc.add_failure_info(u("failure message with legal unicode char: [\x22]"))
+    tc.add_failure_info("failure message with legal unicode char: [\x22]")
     ts, tcs = serialize_and_read(Suite("test", [tc]))[0]
     verify_test_case(
-        tcs[0], {"name": "Failure-Message"}, failure_message=u("failure message with legal unicode char: [\x22]")
+        tcs[0], {"name": "Failure-Message"}, failure_message="failure message with legal unicode char: [\x22]"
     )
 
 
 def test_init_illegal_unicode_char():
     tc = Case("Failure-Message")
-    tc.add_failure_info(u("failure message with illegal unicode char: [\x02]"))
+    tc.add_failure_info("failure message with illegal unicode char: [\x02]")
     ts, tcs = serialize_and_read(Suite("test", [tc]))[0]
     verify_test_case(
-        tcs[0], {"name": "Failure-Message"}, failure_message=u("failure message with illegal unicode char: []")
+        tcs[0], {"name": "Failure-Message"}, failure_message="failure message with illegal unicode char: []"
     )
 
 
--- a/tests/test_test_suite.py
+++ b/tests/test_test_suite.py
@@ -5,7 +5,7 @@
 import warnings
 
 import pytest
-from six import PY2, StringIO
+from io import StringIO
 
 from .asserts import verify_test_case
 from junit_xml import TestCase as Case
@@ -197,8 +197,6 @@
         Suite(name="suite2", test_cases=[Case(name="Test2")]),
     ]
     xml_string = to_xml_report_string(test_suites)
-    if PY2:
-        assert isinstance(xml_string, unicode)  # noqa: F821
     expected_xml_string = textwrap.dedent(
         """
         <?xml version="1.0" ?>