diff --git a/babel.spec b/babel.spec
index 3334dcc..43485ca 100644
--- a/babel.spec
+++ b/babel.spec
@@ -6,9 +6,19 @@
 # And pytest is at this point not yet ready
 %bcond_with bootstrap
 
+# Since babel 2.12, the pytz dependency is optional.
+# However, pytz is preferred when installed.
+# Running tests with pytz is optional as well.
+# We don't want to pull pytz into ELN/RHEL just to test integration with it,
+# but we don't want to ship babel in Fedora with an untested default,
+# so we make the dependency conditional.
+# Ideally, the dependency would be conditional on pytz availability in the repo,
+# but that's not possible in 2023 yet.
+%bcond pytz_tests %{undefined rhel}
+
 Name:           babel
-Version:        2.11.0
-Release:        2%{?dist}
+Version:        2.12.0
+Release:        1%{?dist}
 Summary:        Tools for internationalizing Python applications
 
 License:        BSD
@@ -21,9 +31,12 @@ BuildRequires:  python3-devel
 BuildRequires:  python3-setuptools
 %if !%{with bootstrap}
 BuildRequires:  coreutils
-BuildRequires:  python3-pytz
 BuildRequires:  python3-pytest
 BuildRequires:  python3-freezegun
+%if %{with pytz_tests}
+# The pytz tests are skipped when pytz is missing
+BuildRequires:  python3-pytz
+%endif
 %endif
 
 # build the documentation
@@ -50,7 +63,6 @@ Babel is composed of two major parts:
 Summary:        %sum
 
 Requires:       python3-setuptools
-Requires:       python3-pytz
 
 %{?python_provide:%python_provide python3-babel}
 
@@ -124,6 +136,10 @@ export TZ=UTC
 %endif
 
 %changelog
+* Tue Feb 28 2023 Miro Hrončok <mhroncok@redhat.com> - 2.12.0-1
+- Update to 2.12.0
+- No longer depends on pytz
+
 * Wed Jan 18 2023 Fedora Release Engineering <releng@fedoraproject.org> - 2.11.0-2
 - Rebuilt for https://fedoraproject.org/wiki/Fedora_38_Mass_Rebuild
 
diff --git a/sources b/sources
index fd5b260..c8eed34 100644
--- a/sources
+++ b/sources
@@ -1 +1 @@
-SHA512 (Babel-2.11.0.tar.gz) = 526368dc5e44f2d93c52f2fcb544130eea6c6b7c78325bd56c6d9a6706890a4cd9daa1498d639aab65059801d87977da626e64585083c58c4b328001991eea0b
+SHA512 (Babel-2.12.0.tar.gz) = 202496c8c749423e6848a4e4a5eb959574b235db6512e95fdb94492cdbf7487ed3d673fff8257d01e0ee603e65cd40100ca9094c0f46d0129d8c34d2f4d0ddf5