One way is to do something like:
>>> a = """=====\nhello\n=====\n\n - one\n - two\n"""
>>> import docutils
>>> docutils.core.publish_parts(a, writer_name='html')['html_body']
u'<div class="document" id="hello">\n<h1 class="title">hello</h1>\n<blockquote>\n<ul class="simple">\n<li>one</li>\n<li>two</li>\n</ul>\n</blockquote>\n</div>\n'